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SCRIPTURE PORTRAITS: 



fattens of %\hk djfaratterSt 



ESPECIALLY DESIGNED 



FAMILY CIRCLE, 



3HT^ 






REV. JONATHAN BRACE. 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD. 

18 54, 



3*5 



Entered according lo Act ofCongreSB, in the year 1854, by 
M. W. DODD, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the I'nited States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Page- 

I. ADAM, 9 

II. EVE, 17 

III. ENOCH, 27 

IV. NOAH, 34 

V. ABRAHAM, 43 

VI. ABRAHAM AND HIS SON ISAAC, 54 

VII. LOT., 72 

VIII LOT'S WIFE, ... 82 

IX. ESAU AND JACOB, 90 

X. JOSEPH, 109 

XL JOB, - 138 

XII. MOSES, 149 

XIII. DEBORAH, 172 

XIV. GIDEON, 184 

XV. RUTH, 194 

XVI. HANN T AH, THE MOTHER OF SAMUEL, 213 

XVII. ELI AND HIS SONS, 229 

XVIII. SAUL AND THE WITCH OF EXDOR, - - '249 

XIX. DAVID, - - 266 

XX. SOLOMON, - 281 

XXL DANIEL, - - - 304 

XXII. HAMAN, MORDECAT. AND ESTHER, .... 319 



Or all the cliannels through, which interesting 
and valuable knowledge is conveyed to mankind, 
perhaps none is more popular and effectual than 
that of biography. There is no better mode of 
becoming acquainted with human nature — of 
familiarizing ourselves with the springs and 
motives of human conduct — of learning the 
walks of respectability and happiness — of being 
animated to duty and deterred from transgres- 
sion — than by studying the character and de- 
portment of those who have lived in the world, 
and who, though "being dead," yet speak. 

If this is true of biography in general, it is 
emphatically true of sacred biograplry. Our 

1* (5) 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

Heavenly Father, all whose doings are marked 
with a wisdom and goodness which are infinite, 
has not confined the inspired volume to state- 
ments and defences of doctrine merely, nor yet 
to history and prophecy ; but has sketched there 
characters also — has drawn, with His own inimi- 
table pencil, a gallery of striking portraits for 
us to contemplate, and from which proceeds an 
influence, salutary and powerful, on the life that 
now is, and on that which is to come. 

We have thought we could not render a more 
acceptable service to the readers of the Mother's 
Magazine and Family Monitor — a service that 
would minister more highly to their gratification, 
or tell more successfully upon their spiritual pro- 
fit — than by presenting, in its successive num- 
bers, a group of those eminent characters 1 1 
up by Providence in former days, and exhibited 
in the Scriptures of truth. 

In portraying these characters, we shall, wher- 
ever opportunity presents, dwell particularly on 



INTRODUCTION. Vil 

the lessons to be drawn from the conduct and 
influence of those sustaining the parental rela- 
tion ; not confining our suggestions on this point 
to mothers, but giving to fathers also their due 
proportion. And while in this respect we shall 
depart from the beaten track of writers for the 
home-circle, who usually place a double share of 
responsibility to the mother's account, we trust 
the influence of the course we shall pursue, will 
tell no less truly and powerfully on the highest 
interests of the family. 



The above remarks were introductory to these 
pieces, when they originally appeared in that 
ancient and popular periodical, The Mother's 
Magazine and Family Monitor, published in 
New York. They were received with much 
favor by the readers of that work, and the friends 
of the Author, believing that they are entitled to 
a less ephemeral existence than the pages of a 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

monthly, have induced him to issue them in the 
present form. Whatever may be their defects, 
they will be found to possess at least one merit, 
that of being scriptural, as opposed to what is 
merely fanciful or interesting ; and if they shall 
generate an increased fondness for the sacred 
oracles, or clothe any portions of them in new 
charms, or give forth any lessons of wisdom 
and virtue, the end of their publication will be 
answered. 

August, 1854. 



§^txx0xt j^tixtxmU* 
i. 

ADAM. 

The Sacred Volume opens most appropriately, 
for it opens with an account of the Creation. 
The first sentence is, "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth;" a sentence 
which the highest intellect unaided by inspiration 
never could have written, and which lets in a 
flood of light upon the mind. Not self-created 
was the world, but it had an intelligent Author. 
Nor was this goodly fabric formed out of mate- 
rials which had existed from eternity, but these 
materials had their beginning from Himself 
His creative act produced them. They sprang 
from nothing at his word. And when these 
materials were rude and undigested, when "all 
was without form and void, and darkness was 

(9) 



10 ADAM. 

upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters," hovered 
over this dense and floating chaos, and infused 
into it a vivifying principle. 

" With mighty wings outspread, 
Dovelike, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, 
And madest it pregnant." 

Thence arose the mountains, valleys, land- 
scapes and oceans of the terraqueous globe, and 
the overarching heavens ! 

But though a material world was thus organ- 
ized, and order and beauty, simplicity and stu- 
pendousness appeared on every side, there was no 
living creature upon it who could discern this 
assemblage of graces, these exhibitions of wis- 
dom, goodness, and power, — much less adore 
the Divine Architect. Man therefore was made ; 
and Adam, the father and founder of the human 
race, was brought into existence. This exquisite 
piece of workmanship was not formed by a word, 
but originated from a special council. Though 
when the eartli and the azure canopy <»{' heaven 
were formed, "God snake and it was done, lie 
commanded and it stood fast;" though when a 



ADAM. 11 

luminous substance was to be diffused abroad to 
scatter the thick vapors, he said, "Let there be 
light, and there was light ;" — an announcement 
which Longinus, the illustrious Athenian philo- 
sopher and critic, instances as a matchless speci- 
men of the sublime ; — though, at a word, the 
waters rolled back into their beds, the dry land 
heaved, the mountains lifted their tops towards 
the sky, and grasses and plants, forest and fruit- 
bearing trees clothed the earth ; though at a word 
the brute creation, every moving creature which 
hath life, began to exist, and perform their pre- 
scribed functions; yet when man was to be 
formed, a consultation was held relative to this 
highest work in the scale of the series, this nobler 
order of beings, transcending the material and 
animal, and "God said, let us make man !" Man 
accordingly was made, his body cunningly fashion- 
ed by the hand of God, and illumined by a soul 
immediately inspired by the breath of the Al- 
mighty. " God created man in his own image," 
made him upright in figure, with nobility im- 
pressed upon his brow, clothed him with the 
majesty of unclouded reason, endowed him with 



12 ADAM. 

the capacity of resembling himself in moral attri- 
butes, and gave him dominion over the inferior 
creatures, who were governed only by instinct. 

Behold then Adam as he came from the hands 
of the Infinite ! His form, how stately ! his in- 
tellect, how clear ! his soul, how capacious ! A 
distinguished link in the chain of being, connect- 
ing the animal with the spiritual, dust with Deity, 
earth with heaven ; he stands forth the acknow- 
ledged sovereign of the globe ; all cattle, the 
fowl of the air, and every beast of the field, pre- 
senting themselves before him as his subjects, to 
receive their distinctive and appropriate names. 

Adam differed somewhat from all his descend- 
ants. He derived his existence from God by 
direct creation; they theirs, through the inter- 
vention of human parents. Adam came into 
existence in the perfection of his physical sta- 
ture, and in the full vigor of his intellectual 
powers ; they advance to maturity in these par- 
ticulars by slow degrees, lie was taught of God, 
and the properties of the objects and beings 
around him were supernaturallv imparted to 
him ; we are left to gather such knowledge by 



ADAM. 18 

laborious study and slow experience. Adam 
was "created in righteousness and true holiness," 
enjoyed sensible intercourse with God, and pro- 
bably with angels ; we are born depraved, and 
go astray from the birth. Adam was created 
immortal ; we, with the seeds of decay and death 
sown in our constitution. 

It was right that a creature thus fashioned and 
endowed, should love and obey the Author of his 
being ; and that it might be seen whether or not 
he would do so, his affection and loyalty must be 
subjected to some decided test. But what shall 
this test be? To a being possessed of a holy 
nature, an abstract, moral precept would not 
subject his obedience to an appropriate trial ; the 
test must therefore be some positive, tangible 
injunction. He must abstain from some gratifica- 
tion in which he has natural power to participate, 
simply because his Maker enjoins upon him such 
abstinence. In that delightful garden, therefore, 
in which his Creator had placed him, " to dress 
it and to keep it," — that garden stocked in luxu- 
riant abundance with whatever could please the 
eye, or charm the ear, or regale the sense, — one 
2 



1-i ADAM. 

tree was placed, tlie fruit of which he was com- 
manded neither to eat nor touch. Easy test, 
indeed, of Adam's regard for his M aker's will ! 
lie needed not the fruit thereof to make him 
happy, and he had only to let it alone, to pr< >ve 
his reverence for Jehovah's authority, manifest 
his attachment to the Author of his-every mercy, 
and advance himself in perfection as a reward of 
righteousness. But he foolishly and criminally 
partook thereof; was despoiled of his innocence ; 
forfeited the blessings of the covenant; and 
conscious guilt, remorse, and shame possessed 
him. 

Behold Adam now a fallen creature. We have 
seen him in innocence, now he is in guilt ; Ave 
have seen him righteous, now we behold him 
wicked ; we have seen him loyal, now we behold 
him rebellious ; we have seen him happy in the 
smiles and favor of God, now we behold him 
fleeing from Him in confusion and terror, and 
driven from Him, a prey to suffering, disease, and 
death. 

We may well look at him as thus degenemi.', 
for by this awful revolution in his condition and 



ADAM. 15 

character, we are all affected. As, if this vene- 
rable Father of all men, had kept his first estate 
of holiness and felicity, we should have had 
virtue without alloy, and delight unaccompanied 
with pain ; so, now that he transgressed and cast 
himself out from the bosom of God, we partake 
of his changed nature, and are involved in the 
consequences of his sinful act. As he, the cove- 
nant head and representative of all his posterity, 
" being in honor, abode not," the crown has fallen 
from our heads, and the sceptre dropped from our 
hands. 

No longer now in Eden, Adam, with the image 
of God departed from him, and with sadness in 
his heart, addressed himself to the tillage of the 
earth, which, cursed for his sake, spontaneously 
produced thorns and briers. This was part of 
the sentence pronounced upon him for his dis- 
obedience. Nor was this his only grief, as we 
shall find when the history of his companion 
Eve, with whom his OAvn history is so intimately 
blended, is considered. 

Well was it for Adam, and for us his poster- 
ity, that, after partaking of the tree of knowledge 



16 ADAM. 

of good and evil, he partook not also of the tree 
of life. This would have made his life of sin and 
sorrow immortal, and perpetuated our existence 
in a world of woe. But as it was, when his dust 
in due time returned to dust, his imperishable 
spirit, we hope — clothed with the righteousness 
of Christ, even as his nakedness had been covered 
with the coat of skin furnished by the hand of 
his compassionate Lord — was received up into 
heaven ; whither, too, we may go, through faith 
in the same atoning Redeemer. For — blessed be 
God — the merits of the promised seed of the 
woman who was to bruise the serpent's head, like 
the luminary of day which irradiates the stars 
above it, and our globe beneath it, go back in 
their virtue to the beginning of time, and forward, 
till " time shall be no longer." 



II. 

EVE. 

As we visit the groves of Paradise and the 
streams of Eden, admire the beauties of its flow- 
ers, breathe their fragrance, and partake of its 
fruits, we behold an individual there, superior 
to all other created objects, in that he alone pos- 
sesses intelligence and immortality. It is the 
first man, Adam, whom God had formed in His 
own likeness, and made capable of beholding, 
with adoring wonder, the wisdom, goodness, 
and power which his works exhibited. Some- 
thing however was needed to make this indivi- 
dual consummately happy, and that was a person 
of kindred nature and powers with himself; who 
could be his companion, share his happiness, and 
praise with him the Author of their joint felicity. 
"It is not good for man to be alone," said Jeho- 
vah ; " I will make him a help meet for him." 

(17) 



18 EVE. 

Hence the creation of Eve. It was to supply a 
want ; — to furnish a companion possessed of 
those mental and moral endowments which would 
qualify her to be society for the man made in 
God's own image, heighten his joys, aid his 
growth in goodness, and commune with him in 
close and beatified intercourse with the great 
Lord of all ; — in a word, to complete the perfec- 
tion of Paradise. "And the Lord caused a deep 
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept ; and he 
took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in- 
stead thereof. And the rib which the Lord had 
taken from man, made he a woman, and brought 
her unto the man." With what delight must 
Adam have looked upon this new proof of the 
Creator's skill and benevolence ! A part of him- 
self — a portion of his very substance — breathing 
and graceful before him, and smiling upon him ! 
As Matthew Henry quaintly remarks : " The 
woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam ; 
— not out of his head to top him, nor out of his 
feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to 
be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, 
and near his heart to be beloved." This shows 



KYK. 19 

what God intended woman to be, and in this she 
may learn her earthly mission. 

This lovely creature, as a piece of Adam's self, 
was to be regarded as on a level with himself, 
and as equally though differently endowed. He 
was to guide, protect, and cherish her, and she 
was to be in all things a help meet for him — infus- 
ing into his rougher nature her own gentleness, 
and suitably influencing him as a spiritual being. 
And when woman does this, then is she truly a 
" help meet," and answers the high purpose of 
her creation. Too often, however, is this im- 
portant fact lost sight of, and woman is found 
considering herself formed rather to minister to 
man's gratification, as a return for which, she is 
to be waited upon and caressed, than formed to 
blend her energies with his in mutually develop- 
ing their intellectual and moral powers, and pro- 
moting a more perfect state of society. May our 
fair readers remember why it was not "good for 
man to be alone,'' and aim to fulfil for him that 
office of affection and assistance which he impe- 
riously needs to make him what he should be, 



20 E V E . 

and for the performance of which office, they 
were divinely created and commissioned. 

" For contemplation he, and valor formed, 
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace." 

Milton. 
A mournful revolution soon occurred in Eve's 
character and circumstances, caused by disobe- 
dience. Two trees, differing from all others in the 
garden — " the tree of life, and the tree of know- 
ledge of good and evil" — she and her partner, as a 
test of their affection and loyalty to Jehovah, were 
forbidden to touch. The test was a simple and 
easy one, but they could not bear it, and so lost 
their virtue. Seduced by the arch apostate in 
the form of a serpent, who charmed her by his 
fascinations, she listened to his siren voice, looked 
at the forbidden tree of knowledge, with its rich 
foliage, exquisite fragrance, and tempting fruit, 
and in an evil hour plucked and ate. Adam. 
overcome by her persuasions and her fond tones, 
as she had been overcome by the voice of the 
tempter, presumptuously partook also, and be- 
came a sharer in her guilt. 



EVE. 21 

" Earth felt the wound ; and nature from her seat, 
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo 
That all was lost." Milton. 

Innocence was exchanged for criminality, loy- 
alty for rebellion, confidence for fear, happiness 
for misery, and glory for shame : and when the 
Lord God, from whom they had thrown off alle- 
giance, and by that act voluntarily rejected his 
favor and incurred his displeasure, came to see 
and converse with them as he was wont to do, 
they fled to the shrubbery of the garden, to 
screen themselves from his eyes. But who can 
elude the discovery of Omniscience ! He found 
them, and his former accents and language of 
love were exchanged for those of denunciation 
and wo. Both were expelled from Eden ;— 
cherubium and flaming sword barred to both all 
access to the tree of life ; — irregular passions and 
unholy desires took possession of their breasts ;* — 
man was doomed to till the earth, of which 
thorns and thistles were the spontaneous pro- 
duct, and woman was loaded with those ills 
under which she now labors. 

Was Eve impelled by the principle of curiosi- 
2* 



22 EVE. 

ty to partake of what was forbidden ? Let her 
daughters set a watch here, lest they be moved 
by this same principle to do likewise. Did Eve, 
by her blandishments, involve Adam in her 
sin ? Taken originally from his side, a near and 
tender part of himself, did she beguile him by 
the magic power of love to do as she had done ? 
Let her daughters, while they learn here the 
extent of their influence over the other sex, see 
that this influence becomes not a snare to man ; 
see that man's fond attachment to them is not 
appropriated and perverted by them to man's 
injury. Did Eve, delirious with Satan's enchant- 
ments, and with an overweening trust in her 
own ability, neglect to lift up her heart for 
guidance and support to the Infinite God ; and 
therefore, left by him to battle with the wily ser- 
pent, alone, was conquered and fell? Let her 
daughters learn from this, in the hour of temp- 
tation not to be independent of Him who made 
them ; but, on the swift wing of faith, send a 
prayer upwards for sustaining strength. And in 
all the manifold trials of this present life to which 
woman is subjected, let her remember, under the 



EVE. 23 

pressure of these sorrows, their original cause ;- — 
for "the curse causeless doth not come;" — and 
so be patient and resigned to her lot. Eve's dis- 
obedience was the commencement of her troubles. 
These troubles were peculiar, and they are wo- 
man's. 

Eve soon became a mother ; the mother of a 
son whom she called Cain ; a name signifying a 
possession or acquisition; saying, "I have gotten 
a man from the Lord." It has been thought 
that as God in mercy promised Eve an illus- 
trious descendant, by whom the old serpent 
who deceived her should be vanquished, she 
supposed that Cain was that one ; for the words 
may be translated — " I have gotten the man, even 
Jehovah ;" and that hence, in the exuberance of 
her joy, she believed the promised seed, the pre- 
dicted Messiah, to have been born. Had Cain 
been Christ, he would have been indeed an ac- 
quisition, a valuable gift ; but it was not so ; and 
the first mother was sadly mistaken in her first 
offspring — what he was, and what he would be- 
come. And so with mothers since, who have 
exulted at the birth of a child ; forgetting their 



24 R V B . 

anguish in what they regard as a great blessing, 
too frequently have they been disappointed ; 
u for who knoweth whether he shall be a wise 
man or a fool," a Christian or an unbeliever, a 
comfort or a curse to his parents! 

" When the wife, 
Blest into mother, in the innocent look, 
Or even the piping cry, of lips that brook 
No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives 
Man knows not, — when from out its cradled nook 
She sees her little bud put forth its leaves, 
What may the fruit be yet ?— I know not ; Cain was Eve's." 

Byron. 

In him his parents beheld the fruits of their 
guilt ; their sin working in him, for his passions 
were violent and his will headstrong. Perhaps, 
exulting in affections unknown, unfelt before, 
they, in their fondness for the first - born, ne- 
glected to govern him. If so, they received that 
recompense of their erring indulgence which was 
meet; for f'a child left to himself, bringeth his 
mother to shame." 

Adam had by his wife a second son, whom she 
called Abel, which word, signifying vanity, re- 
veals the severity of her disappointment in the 



EVE. 25 

case of Cain, and a feeling of sadness at the 
prostration of her hopes and wishes. But this 
boy proved better than his mother's fears, and 
grew in wisdom as he grew in stature ; develop- 
ing traits of character amiable and pleasing in 
the sight of his Creator. May be the mother, 
reproved of negligence in the discipline and edu- 
cation of Cain, was not at fault in this respect 
touching Abel, but " trained him up in the nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord." If so, her 
"labor was not in vain in the Lord," and she 
had the unspeakable satisfaction — that maternal 
joy which refreshes the soul, from the sight of a 
son "walking in the paths of truth and of 
righteousness." 

But there was still another trial for Eve, an- 
other pang to teach her the bitterness of sin. 
This child of promise and of piety was slain by 
his elder brother ! Here was death ; death by a 
brother's hand ! She had heard of death before, 
in the words, "dust thou art, and unto dust 
shalt thou return;" but here it was — the death 
of the helpless and innocent by the strong hand 
of the guilty ; the death of her loving Abel, as he 



26 EVE. 

was ripening into a holy manhood ! How must 
Eve have looked upon his life-blood dyeing the 
green sward ! What tides of sorrow flooded her 
soul, as she stood over his mangled corpse ! Per- 
haps this was Eve's last grief ere she herself de- 
scended to the tomb. She had another son given 
to supply the loss of Abel, and daughters also ; 
and it is to be hoped, through access to Him whom 
the tree of life prefigured, and to whose embrace 
no cherubim or flaming sword presents a barrier, 
she passed at her decease into a more glorious 
Paradise than she had lost. 



in. 

ENOCH. 

If, while travelling, we stop in a town, enter a 
grave-yard belonging to it, (for every town has 
its grave-yard,) and read on a marble slab — 
11 Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God 
took him;" — if we shonld read this inscription, 
and knew no more relative to the departed one 
than this, that his mortal remains were not lying 
there, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," though his 
memory was thus preserved by the monumental 
stone ;— we should suppose him to have been a 
singular and interesting character. If, then, we 
farther read in a book, where a true record was 
kept : M By faith Enoch was translated that he 
should not see death, and was not found because 
God had translated him, for before his trans- 
lation he had this testimony, that he pleased 
God ;" — we should be still more interested in 

(27) 



28 ENOCH. 

the man ; and yet if this was all the intelligence 
we could glean concerning him, our information 
would be very limited. 

Now such is nearly the fact relative to Enoch. 
We know but little concerning him. The in- 
spired account of him is brief. And yet, as the 
seen wing of an angel but awakens a more keen 
desire in the beholder to view the concealed 
angelic form entire; — so the short prominence 
given in scripture narrative to this man of God, 
but kindles an ardent curiosity to know more 
about liim. 

By a touch of the pencil dipped in heaven, 
he is presented to us — " walking icitk God." 
We have met with those to whom these three 
words conveyed the idea of retirement and se- 
clusion, and whose imagination portrayed Enoch 
in the garb and character of a monk. They 
suppose him to have lived apart from his con- 
temporaries, having nothing to do with the ordi- 
nary concerns of life, but occupying himself 
exclusively with things divine. In their con- 
ception of him, he might have sat for the portrait 
of ParneH's hermit. 



ENOC II . 29 

' : Far in the wild, unknown to public view, 
From youth to age a reverend hermit grew ; 
The moss his bed — the cave his humble cell, 
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well j 
Remote from man, with God he passed his days, 
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise." 

But in our view, they have a mistaken idea of 
Enoch. He was no hermit. In no such " serene 
repose" did his days glide away. He was in the 
busy world while his affections were above ; — was 
" diligent in business, while fervent in spirit ;" — 
was endeavoring to win mankind to virtue, 
while virtuous himself. "We learn that he was a 
preacher, and have a specimen of his preaching ; 
— saying to that profligate generation — " Behold 
the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints 
to execute judgment upon all ;" and are told by 
Jewish Eabbis, that it was when he was upon 
the point of being murdered for his protestations 
against sin, and his honest, vigorous, and un- 
selfish devotion to the good of individuals, and 
of society, that Jehovah interposed, and extend- 
ing a divine arm down from the skies, lifted him 
from the reach of his enemies. No, Enoch was 



80 ENOCH. 

not a recluse ; — nor do the words, " walked with 
God," convey to our minds any such idea. The 
idea they do convey, is rather that of an indi- 
vidnal, distinguished, by being reconciled to God, 
from an evil and perverse generation who walk- 
ed contrary to God, and God to them ; of an 
individual who "set the Lord always before 
him," soliciting the divine guidance, and living 
in conformity thereto ; of an individual who was 
in fellowship with God through, the medium 
of his works, providence, arid Spirit; keeping 
bright the flame of piety on the altar of his own 
heart, and kindling np and cherishing it in the 
bosoms of others. This, as we understand it, is 
the way in which Enoch " walked with God." 
Contemporary with Adam three hundred and 
eight years, and the first who sustained the 
sacred office, with faith in the promised Seed, he 
offered sacrifices, listened to Jehovah's voire in 
those various ways in which the Most High 
expressed His will, cultivated a holy intimacy 
and communion with God, and, in the spheres 
in which he moved, as a man, a minister, and a 
lather — for he was the father of Methuselah " and 



ENOCH. 31 

begat sons and daughters" — developed the pos- 
session of religion as a vital, habitual, and 
abiding principle. This worthy, " God took," or, 
as Paul explains it, " translated, that he saw not 
death." How this was done, or what cheering 
intimations were given him of his departure — 
who shall say ? Did a car of fire come for him, 
as, centuries after, the wheels of God's chariot 
made music on the air for Elijah ? Did angels, 
those spirits pure and bright, who "minister 
unto the heirs of salvation," and who had minis- 
tered unto him in his earthly pilgrimage ; — were 
they commissioned to visit him, and folding him 
in their soft embrace, take him to his and their 
heavenly home ? Or in some other mysterious 
manner was he transferred from the troubles 
of earth, to the bliss of the celestial paradise ? 
We cannot answer these questions. We only 
know that " God took him," so that he saw 
not death. No " pains or groans or dying strife" 
were his ; and to M the deep, damp grave, the 
darkness, and the worms," he was a total stran- 
ger. Probably " in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, he was changed," as saints will be at 



32 ENOCH. 

their Lord's second coming ; — for " flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ;" — and 
with a seraphic escort was "received up into 
glor}^." What a change from the clayey vest- 
ments of mortality, to that " body likened unto 
Christ's glorious body ;" — from the disgusting 
depravity of this lower world, to the holiness 
of that upper world ; — from the revilings of men 
of corrupt minds, to the anthems of the blessed ; 
— from the society which he left, to the conge- 
nial company of the redeemed ; — from the tainted 
atmosphere of earth, to the vivifying atmosphere 
of heaven ! Valuable purposes were subserved 
by this passage of Enoch to the skies. If, as is 
quite probable, the wicked of his day denied the 
soul's immortality ; here was a sensible, impress- 
ive, and convincing proof it. If, as is quite 
probable, they turned a deaf ear to his preaching, 
and denied the truth of the testimony which hfi 
bore against their unrighteousness : God showed 
that his servant was right and faithful, by bridg- 
ing for him the valley of shadows, and charioting 
him to glory. By this flight of his through the 
golden gates of the New Jerusalem without 



ENOCH. 33 

looking upon the face of the king of terrors, 
we learn too, what, but for sin, had been the 
happy lot of all mortals ; for had our first parents 
persisted in their obedience, their descendants, 
like Enoch, would have reached the heavenly 
mansions, without the dissolution of their mortal 
tabernacles by the icy touch of death ; nor would 
the dust of the ch arch-yard have pressed upon 
their cold and pulseless bosoms. 

We, now fallen, sinful creatures, cannot expect 
to be translated as was Enoch. And yet to the 
genuine believer, to him who has Enoch's faith, 
and walks like him with God, death is, though 
painful, but a translation ; for he has underneath 
him the everlasting arms ; to him death and hell 
are despoiled of their dominion, and the crum- 
bling of the prison walls of his soul encircles him 
with the glories of the Lamb. 



IV. 

NOAH. 

The extreme corruption of mankind before the 
general deluge, may be accounted for, not only 
from the loss of the pristine innocence of our first 
parents, and the depravity which they contracted 
and transmitted to their descendants, but also 
from the intermarriages between the " seed of the 
righteous and the seed of the wicked."' The good 
are more easily injured by the bad, than the bad 
are reformed by the good ; and when the family 
of Seth, who had espoused the true religion, and 
were denominated "the sons of God," became 
united by marriage to the family of Cain, who 
partook of his impiety,' then the sacred stock by 
such affinity degenerated — " the salt of the earth" 
lost its purity, and corruption mightily prevailed. 
Such unequal alliances it were better to avoid. 
If they are not positively forbidden by the Apos- 

(34) 



NOAH. 35 

tie, where lie says : " Be ye not unequally yoked 
with, unbelievers ; for what fellowship hath Christ 
with Belial ? or what communion hath light with 
darkness ? or what agreement hath the temple of 
God with idols ? or what part hath he that be- 
lieveth with an infidel ?," — if this language is not 
to be interpreted as prohibiting marriage between 
Christians and those who make no pretensions to 
the possession of piety, yet such marriages are 
too frequently a fruitful source of evil. As it is 
difficult for a bird to soar aloft with one wing 
crippled, so it is difficult for a person to advance 
in piety who has for an intimate associate one 
who is not pious. Extremely difficult is it too, 
for a family of children to be trained up in the 
ways of the Lord, when their parents differ in 
sentiment and feeling on the momentous subject 
of religion. The father and the mother, go- 
verned by different principles and tending to a 
different destiny, will be divided in the counsels 
which they give to their offspring, and in the ex- 
amples which they set before them; and the 
influence of such division can hardly fail to be 
unhappy upon their offspring for time and for 



eternity. There is no sympathy or unison be- 
tween truth and falsehood, holiness and sin. 
Had those who descended from Seth, and among 
whom was the true Church, refused affinity with 
the carnal, irreligious descendants of Cain, evil 
would not have so abounded ; and if, in select- 
ing a partner for life, the question by the pious 
one should invariably be raised, " Is he or she a 
Christian?" and marriage be contracted with such 
a person alone, most beneficial would be the re- 
sult upon the spiritual welfare of the parties, the 
spiritual welfare of their children, and the inte- 
rests of the communhy. 

From these specified causes, the antediluvians 
were sunk to the lowest ebb of sin. Not only 
was their wickedness universal, but it was ex- 
treme. The words which the Spirit of God em- 
ploys with reference to it are : " The earth was cor- 
rupt before the Lord, and the earth was filled with 
violence. And the Lord looked upon the earth 
and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had cor- 
rupted his way upon the earth." In the midst, 
however, of this profligacy, vice, and rapine, 
there was one who partook not of it, but was 



NOAH. 37 

distinguished for his righteousness. This was 
Noah, the son of the second Lamech, the grand- 
son of Methuselah, and the tenth in descent from 
Adam. It would seem, from the name given to 
this personage by his parents, that they had a pre- 
sentiment of his future signal services, for the 
word Noah signifies rest or comfort ; and he was 
a comforter of many, and a type of that Messiah 
who is the true centre and rest of the soul. Like 

" the seraph Abdiel, faithful found 

Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal, 

Nor number nor example with him wrought 

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 

Though single." Milton. 

Thus Noah resisted the contagion of evil in- 
fluences, opposed the maxims and practices of 
the times, stemmed the current of corrupt pub- 
lic sentiment, despised the sneers of the profane, 
and braved the threats of the ungodly. " Noah 
was a good man, and perfect in his generations, 
and Noah walked with God." To him the Lord 
revealed his intention of covering the whole com- 
pass of the habitable globe with a flood of waters, 
3 



38 NOAH. 

and commanded him to construct an ark for his 
own preservation, and the preservation of his 
family. Noah acted in obedience to the voice of 
God. He proceeded openly to his work, which 
employed him for one hundred and twenty years. 
During this period he told those around him that 
he was acting by divine command, and solemnly 
warned them, by forsaking their sins, to escape 
the impending destruction. We know not that 
one was found, (with the exception of his family,) 
who received his warnings ; but doubtless many 
laughed at his folly and credulity. The ark or 
large vessel being completed, " the Lord said unto 
Noah, Come thou and all thine house into it." 
ISTo sooner had he and his family entered, and 
the Lord had shut them in, than divine mercy 
withdrew, and the Holy Spirit ceased longer to 
strive with rebellious man. " The fountains of 
the great deep," says the sacred historian, " were 
broken up, and the windows of heaven were 
opened." The vast reservoirs of water, which 
Jehovah had hitherto restrained, " that they 
might not pass over to cover the earth," burst 
forth in tremendous floods; the barriers also, 



NOAH. 39 

which prevented the " waters above the firma- 
ment" from mingling with the " waters nnder the 
firmament," were taken away, and the rain de- 
scended in solid sheets. The warnings of the 
pious patriarch were then remembered, but re- 
membered as the warnings of gospel ministers 
are remembered by the wretched victims of the 
pit. The same power which shut Noah m, shut 
them out, and safety was nowhere else to be found. 
The guilty beings fled in vain to the mountains, 
and thence to the topmost branches of the trees 
which crowned their summits. The hand of the 
Almighty was upon them. The waters reached 
them even there, and buried them beneath the 
angry billows. " Fifteen cubits upward did they 
prevail." Excepting Noah, and they that were 
with him in the ark, every living creature per- 
ished. They alone, lifted up on the bosom of 
the rising flood, and riding on the back of the 
swelling surges, were secure ; and the higher the 
flood arose, the nearer they were borne to their 
own heaven. 

A whole family in the ark ! What a delight- 
ful thought ! A whole family in heaven ! A 



40 NOAH. 

still more delightful thought ! And as that family 
in the ark were introduced there through the faith 
of one man — the faith of Noah — so, by the blessing 
of God upon a father's faith, a Christian father's 
faithful counsels, affectionate solicitude, and fer- 
vent prayers, a whole family may stand together at 
Christ's right hand. " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ," said the Apostle Paul to the Eoman jailer, 
11 believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved and thy house." Not thou only, but thy 
house. Father of a family, think of this. Think of 
the connection between you and yours — you and 
the partner of your bosom — you and the offspring 
of your loins, bone of your bone and flesh of 
your flesh ; consider that God has constituted you 
a minister of his grace in your own house, and 
connected the salvation of your own household 
with your faith and fidelity ; and since God has 
provided an ark in the person of his Son, come 
thou and all thy house into it, for there is room 
for thine as well as for thee, and together may 
you be wafted to the haven of eternal rest. 

The tempest having spent itself, serenity re- 
turned and the waters assuaged ; Noah removed 



NOAH. 41 

the covering of the ark, and beholding that the 
ground was dry, came out of the ark, he and 
they that were with him, after it had been their 
asylum for little more than a year. With a soul 
overflowing with gratitude to his divine Pre- 
server, his first act was that of worship. Erect- 
ing an altar and assembling his family around it, 
he laid upon it their united sacrifice of thanksgiv- 
ing to him who "holdeth the winds in his fist, and 
the waters in the hollow of his hand," and who 
had kindly watched over them and guarded them 
from danger amidst the convulsions of the earth. 
This sacrifice was accepted, and a covenant estab- 
lished with the patriarch that the globe should 
not again be inundated — of which covenant the 
rainbow was made by Jehovah the seal and the 
pledge. "Look," says the writer of Ecclesiasti- 
cus : " Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him 
that made it ; very beautiful it is in the bright- 
ness thereof; it compasseth the heavens about 
with a glorious circle, and the hands of the Most 
High have bended it." 

We pursue not the story of Noah further. 
Suffice it to say that this second father of the 



42 NOAH. 

human race engaged in the labors of husbandry, 
the training of his family, and the service of the 
Lord, and " came to the grave as a shock of corn 
cometh in its season," having survived the deluge 
three hundred and fifty years. "And all the days 
of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and 
he died." 



V. 
ABRAHAM. 

Among the many personages brought to view 
in the Old Testament, whom the mind delights 
to contemplate, and around whom the affections 
gather, no one holds a more decided prominence 
than Abraham. 

Concerning the early part of this patriarch's 
life, we know nothing. Not haying been made 
a matter of record, it can only be a matter of 
conjecture. He is first introduced to us at the 
seventy -fifth year of his age, when he was called 
from Ur of the Chaldees, to " go out into a place 
which he should after receive for an inheritance." 

This call to leave his country and his father's 
house, to turn his back upon the place of his 
birth, the scenes of his childhood and youth, and 
the graves of his kindred, and start off through 
a pathless waste to a distant and unknown land, 
he, from a sense of duty to God and acquiescence 

(48) 



44: A B R A H A M . 

in tlie Divine will as good and wise, cheerfully 
obeyed, and went four hundred miles across a 
part of Arabia Deserta, to Palestine, or the land 
of Canaan. This surrender of present feeling 
and interest in obedience to the voice of Jehovah, 
from a conviction that his commands are right, 
and that those who obey them will be indemnified 
against loss, is worthy of all imitation ; and he 
who has Abraham's temper and faith, will, when 
called to leave the scenes of impiety, the pomps 
and vanities of a vain world, and set his face 
towards heaven, promptly and actively address 
himself to this duty. Soon after the arrival of 
Abraham in the land of promise, there was a 
severe famine there, on account of which he was 
forced to go down into Egypt. The famine hav- 
ing ceased, he returned to Canaan again; when 
the promise of God to him, ere yet he had left Ui 
of the Chaldees, that he should be blessed with 
a numerous and thriving progeny, that his name 
should be illustrious, and that "in him all the 
families of the earth should be blessed," was 
renewed and confirmed. In all his movements, 
as we track him from spot to Bpot — now at 



ABRAHAM. 45 

Sichem, and then at Bethel — now at Mamre, and 
then at Beersheba — we find him -scrupulously 
rearing the domestic altar, and laying upon it the 
appointed sacrifice. In the several stages of his 
journey, he held uninterrupted intercourse with 
the God of heaven, and "by the side of his tent is 
invariably found the altar, encircled by his family. 
Signal instance of warm devotion ! 

Abraham knew that God was the God of 
households, as well as the God of individuals ; 
that he it is who "setteth the solitary in fami- 
lies ;" that he it is on whom they are dependent 
for life, health, and every blessing ; that a dwelling 
without an altar is an unfurnished dwelling, 
however much of other furniture there may be 
in it ; and that the influence of the domestic altar 
is, of all influences, the most potential and 
salutary in its bearings upon family government 
and prosperity ; — and hence, in the place where 
he tarried but for a night, the altar was set up. 
This was an essential element in the patriarch's 
domestic discipline, by which he was enabled to 
"command his children and his household after 
him to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice 
8* 



46 ABRAHAM. 

and judgment;" and the parent who would have 
Abraham's God for his God, and the God of his 
offspring — who would have his children blessed 
because of their relation to him, will imitate the 
patriarch in this respect — "build an altar to the 
Lord, and call upon the name of the Lord." Let 
me ask my readers, whether Abraham, who, till 
he had passed the age of three-score years and 
ten, lived in the very centre of idolatry, shall rise 
up against them in the day of judgment, because 
he, in his pilgrimage, offered up prayer to the 
Lord in the presence of his household, while they 
do not? 

Soon after the return of Abraham to Canaan, 
the largeness of his possessions, and those of his 
nephew Lot, threatened an alienation of mind 
between them. Both being rich, having flocks, 
herds*, and tents in great numbers, " the land wafl 
not able to bear them, that they should dwell 
together." This furnished another opportunity 
to develop the disposition of Abraham, and pre- 
sents him in a lovely light ; for, instead of allow- 
ing the clashing of worldly interests to separate 
him and his nephew, lie, though the elder, more 



ABRAHAM. 47 

distinguished, and superior man, freely concedes 
to him, with a magnanimity, generosity, and 
self-sacrifice greatly to his honor. His frank, 
pacific, and affectionate language to Lot, was: 
"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me 
and thee, and between thy herdsmen and my 
herdsmen ; for we be brethren. Is not the whole 
land before thee ? Separate thyself, I pray thee, 
from me ; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I 
will go to the right ; or if thou depart to the 
right hand, then I will go the left." The conse- 
quence was, that they amicably parted ; and his 
nephew, regarding temporal advantages merely, 
irrespective of religion, chose the well- watered 
and fertile plain of Jordan. 

We may learn, by this, how to conduct our- 
selves in similar circumstances. We are, "if it 
be possible, as much as lieth in us, to live peace- 
ably with all men;" and where this peace is 
endangered, it is better to yield what we may 
lawfully and properly retain, than by a tenacious, 
inflexible maintenance of our rights, to generate 
contention. Few family differences there would 
be, few neighborhood quarrels, few angry colli- 



48 ABRAH A If . 

sions between man and man, were Abraham's 
spirit more generally diffused in place of that 
self-love, self-conceit, and punctilious adherence 
to fancied dignity and claims, now so prevalent. 
Some years having elapsed, during which the 
faith of the patriarch, relative to God's promise 
to him of a numerous offspring, having been tried, 
and not found wanting, another more specific and 
fuller assurance, that his posterity should be as 
numerous as the stars in the firmament of heaven, 
was made to him, and likewise that his wife 
Sarah should have a son. Ishmael had been born 
before; but the stock with whom the covenant 
of God was to be established, from which the 
Messiah should spring, and from which the 
Church of Christ should proceed, was not to be 
in Ishmael, but in this promised son of Sarah — 
whose name, now changed from Sarai (my 
princess) to Sarah (a princess), indicated a higher 
honor, and stamped her "a mother of nations." 
The child in due time was born, and was named 
Isaac; for the counsel of God never faileth to 
stand. Ishmael was by a bond-maid, Isaac by a 
freewomau. Ishmael was the father and founder 



ABRAHAM. 49 

of the Arabs, while to Isaac "pertained the 
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and 
the giving of the law, and the service of God, 
and the promises ; and of him, as concerning the 
flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed 
forever." Isaac was "the root whence the visible 
Chnrch rose, as a tree distinct from all others, of 
which tree, Christ was the branch of righteous- 
ness; and from which, after Christ came, the 
natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles 
were grafted in ; the same tree which has spread 
its branches over many nations ; which, in due 
time, will cover the whole earth ; and, at the end 
of the world, will be translated from an earthly 
soil into the Paradise of God."* 

The next thing deserving of note in the history 
of Abraham, was a visit paid him by three angels, 
on their way to inflict divine vengeance upon the 
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As he sat in 
the tent door, in the heat of the day, and spied 
them approaching, he, with true oriental hospital- 
ity, invited them to enter, and partake of such 
fare as he might furnish. On being apprised of 

* Edwards' History of Redemption. 



50 ABRAHAM. 

the melancholy mission on which they were 
despatched, his heart was smitten with grief, and 
he fervently supplicated the Almighty to spare 
those profligate cities, if fifty righteous persons 
could be found therein. But no fifty such were 
there. He interceded again and again, till the 
number fifty was reduced to ten ; but even these 
were not found, so general and extreme was the 
corruption. His nephew Lot, who, resident 
among them, " vexed his soul from day to day 
with their unlawful deeds," with his family, were 
the only individuals saved from the fiery ruin. 
Abraham, pitying where he could not relieve, 
"returned to his place," and from a distance 
beheld the fiery shower: "fire and brimstone 
rained down from the Lord out of heaven," 
blasting all the beauties of nature, and consuming 
the impious thousands who had enjoyed the fer- 
tility of the plain only to nourish their sensual 
passions, and aggravate their wickedness against 
God. 

While in the devastation of these guilty cities 
of the vale of Siddim, we see Jehovah's abhor- 
rence of sin, and his punishment of it, we observe, 



ABRAHAM. 51 

too, the efficacy of intercessory j^rayer. Wicked 
as that population were, odious, unspeakably 
odious as they must have been in the eyes of a 
holy God, yet the pleadings of one man almost 
held back the struggling bolts of divine indig- 
nation from falling upon them! There was a 
strength in that solitary, pleading one, superior 
to their insults, — virtue in his wrestlings over- 
topping their outrages ; and the presence of ten 
pious persons would, because of the supplications 
of the patriarch, have delivered the cities. 

Learn hence the power of prayer, not only in 
our own behalf, but in behalf of others — in be- 
half of our children, neighbors, and the commu- 
nity. " Prayer," beautifully remarks one, " is the 
slender nerve that moves the muscles of Omni- 
potence;" and as beautifully remarks another — 
" Prayer and God's mercy are like two buckets 
in a well — while one ascends, the other descends." 

Time rolls on, and the thoughts of this vener- 
able saint are found directed to the grave. And 
why should they not be, when the very first spot 
in that land of Canaan, promised to him and his 
seed for a possession, was a spot purchased by 



52 ABRAHAM. 

him for a burying-place ? It is remarkable that 
the most ancient money transaction of which we 
have any account in the book of God or else- 
where, was this purchase by Abraham of a grave. 
He bought it of the sons of Heth, for his deceased 
Sarah, — a resting-place for the companion of his 
years, the partner of his toils, and the solace of 
a protracted and chequered life. Bowing himself 
to the children of Heth, he said, "lama stranger, 
and a sojourner with you; give me a possession 
of a burying-place with you, that I may bury 
my dead out of my sight. Give me the field, and 
the cave that is therein, and the trees that are 
in the field and in the borders round about ; and 
let them be made sure for the possession of a 
burying-place." That cave and field, "bought 
for four hundred shekels of silver, current money 
with the merchant,'' was Macpelah before Mamre; 
and there the mortal remains of his wife were 
deposited. There too did other hands, performing 
the last sad offices of humanity in his behalf, 
bury Mm. Isaac and Ishmael were both present 
at his funeral. Though separated before, they 
met at their father's interment, and, we hope. 



ABRAHAM. 53 

gave each other the fond embrace of affection 
over his ashes. If children for any cause have 
disagreed, obdurate must be the heart and unfor- 
giving the spirit, that does not bury its resentment 
in a parent's grave. 

This identical family sepulchre of the patriarch 
is reported to have been found near Hebron, in 
the year 1119, and to it, out of respect for his 
memory, Mohammedans often repair. Over it, 
also, Christians at a later day erected a church ; 
but Turks changed the cross into the crescent, by 
converting the edifice into a mosque. 

That interesting and instructive passage in the 
history of the Father of the Faithful— "the 
offering up of his son Isaac" — we reserve for 
distinct consideration. 



VI. 

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

In a previous sketch of the Father of the 
Faithful, we waived all notice of that most won- 
derful and interesting act of his — the offering up 
of his son Isaac ; — deeming this worthy of dis- 
tinct and minute consideration. Such consider- 
ation we now propose to give it. 

That was a most singular command given by 
Jehovah to the Patriarch : " Take now thy son, 
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get 
thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there 
for a burnt offering, upon one of the mountains 
that I will tell thee of!" It would be a singular 
mandate for any tyrannical monarch to give ; 
how much more so to be given by the Lord of 
Hosts, a perfect God — a God who formed the 
ties of nature, and made them sacred, and who, 
amidst the lightnings and thunders of Sinai, said 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 05 

" Thou slialt not kill !" Children were passed 
through the fire to propitiate a pretended deity — 
the cruel Moloch — a god of blood ; but here, 
" the Father of mercies and God of all grace," 
who declares that he afflicts not and grieves not 
his creatures willingly, enjoins it upon a pious 
parent to murder his amiable and affectionate 
son. The unnatural, merciless act must be done 
by himself, and not by another. It would have 
been painful intelligence to Abraham, to be in- 
formed that Isaac must die. Still more distress- 
ing to be told that he must die by violence. But 
how much more poignant the anguish to learn 
that the beloved boy must perish by Ms hand ; 
that he must journey with him three days to the 
place of sacrifice, thinking and sorrowing as he 
moved along — "the iron entering his soul'' 
at every step — that in the dark solitude of a 
mountain forest he must build up an altar, bind 
his offspring and extend him upon the wood, 
stand over him with an unsheathed knife, strike 
the fatal blow, witness the gushing blood and 
the death-struggle, and then conclude the dark 
tragedy by burning the body, and mingling its 



56 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

ashes with the ashes of the pile on which it was 
laid ! Yet such was the nature of the command 
given to test the power of the faith of the faith- 
ful Abraham. 

Numerous were the objections which the pa- 
triarch might have made to complying with it ; 
many pleas entered against the performance of 
such a deed. Obstacles thick and formidable 
lay in his path. There was Sarah, his wife, to 
whom Isaac was dear as the apple of her eye. 
If he told her that he was commanded to present 
such an offering, would she believe it? Would 
she believe that an order apparently so barbarous 
ever emanated from God ? Would she not deny 
that her husband ever had so strange a vision, 
or was ever actually commissioned to the per- 
formance of so atrocious a deed? Would she 
not infer that he was deranged, and that it was 
her duty, aided by her servants, to prevent him 
from insanely burying the knife in the bosom of 
his boy ? And then, if, apprehensive of these 
difficulties, he did not tell her of the order, and 
his purpose, with what face could he return to 
her again without her son ? Could she confide 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 57 

in him ? coTild she respect him ? could she for- 
give him ? Would she not say, " a bloody hus- 
band hast thou been to me !" and flee from him 
as from a murderer ? What if a father should 
do such a thing now — should go out from his 
wife, and slay her only and beloved son ? Could 
she look upon him, at his return, as the loved 
father of her loved boy — as her cherished hus- 
band ? Would not his very presence freeze her 
blood with horror, and she shrink from him as 
from contact with the plague? Another diffi- 
culty might have been found with his neighbors. 
Abraham was encompassed with idolaters. The 
Egyptians, with the Canaanites and Perizzites, 
dwelt in the land. The patriarch doubtless de- 
sired their conversion to the true faith. Doubt- 
less, as he looked upon " their unlawful deeds, 
his righteous soul," like Lot's in Sodom, " was 
sorely vexed." Doubtless he pointed them to 
the spiritual worship of the one living and true 
God, and the pure principles of that piety which 
he approved. These idolaters, too, doubtless 
knew Isaac ; they must have frequently seen 
him with his father. What, then, would be the 



58 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

impression which this singular act would make 
upon them t Might they not tauntingly and tri- 
umphantly say, "Are these the fruits of that 
religion which you commend to us f It seems 
that your God delights in human sacrifices as 
well as ours, and that you do not scruple to offer 
them — to offer even the body of your own and 
only son ! If this is the effect of your religion — 
if it sanctions such cruelty — a tragedy so dread — 
extol it not as superior to ours, nor urge us to 
exchange ours for it." Abraham, keenly alive 
to the glory of Jehovah — " very jealous for the 
Lord of Hosts" — must have felt the force of re- 
marks like these, and must have grieved at being 
the occasion of casting such reproach upon the 
Infinite Being whom he loved and adored. 

But another, and a greater obstacle than either 
of those now mentioned, was, how this command 
was consistent with the Divine promise, that 
through Isaac should come the Redeemer. Be- 
fore the, birth of Isaac, it was predicted concern- 
ing him, that he should be the one from whom 
the Messiah should descend. But how could 
this be, if he should be thus put to death ? How 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. o9 

could he, after his own life was extinguished, 
give life to others ? "When the root was cut up 
and destroyed, how was it possible for a branch 
to spring from it ? This seemed indeed an in- 
surmountable obstacle. God had told the patri- 
arch that he should have a son who should live 
and be blessed in his generations. He had com- 
forted him with the animating prospect of this 
for many years. When Ishmael was born, God 
told Abraham that he was not the one who was 
to be thus illustrious, but that in Isaac should 
his seed be called. He then allowed him to send 
away Ishmael, thus cutting off all hopes from 
that quarter, and now strangely tells him to kill 
Isaac ! Here, to the eye of sense, was a palpable 
contradiction. Abraham might have properly 
inquired, whether he really understood God: 
God might reasonably be expected not to con- 
tradict himself. But here he apparently gives 
two opposite conflicting commands ; one, to cir- 
cumcise and rear up Isaac, that he may be the 
founder of the Church, that all the nations of the 
earth may be blessed in him and his seed — and 
the other, to dye the knife in his heart's blood, 



60 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

and burn his body to ashes on the altar of wood. 
But what did the patriarch do ? Did regard for 
Sarah, and the fear of his neighbors, and the 
fond yearnings of nature, and the impossibility 
of harmonizing Jehovah's prophetic declarations 
and express command, triumph ? No. Observe 
his actual conduct. " He arose early," we are 
told ; — probably the order was given in a vision 
of the night ; and no sooner had the morning 
star melted away, and the sun, indicative of his 
rising, flushed the eastern sky, than the patriarch 
was up, promptly to execute his sad office. He 
informs not Sarah his wife what he is about to 
do. Her affection for her son might have been 
too powerful for her faith ; and as to displeasing 
her, though he cordially loved her, he would 
rather displease her than displease God. He 
cleaves the wood for the burnt offering, lays it 
upon Isaac his son, takes two of his young men 
with him, and sets forth on his melancholy 
journey. He is three days in arriving at the 
place. What days of misery must those have 
been ! It is hard to live in the expectation of 
coming evil. It is often as painful to anticipate 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 61 

as to encounter. But for three successive days 
the patriarch was going to massacre his son — the 
boy of prayers and promises. On the third day 
he comes within sight of the mountain. Point- 
ing it out to his servants as it lay in the distance, 
he tells them it is the spot where he is to wor- 
ship, and dismisses them from him until his 
return. Then taking the knife and fire — the 
instruments of death — he with his son ascends 
the mountain. As toiling they ascend it toge- 
ther, Isaac puts to him the affecting question: 
"My father," (oh, that word father, in such cir- 
cumstances ! It must have pierced the patriarch's 
soul as deeply as the knife he was to strike into 
his son :) " My father," said the lad — for he had 
seen his pious father offer too many sacrifices, 
not to know what was requisite on such occa- 
sions — " my father, behold the fire and the wood, 
but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering ' ?" This 
question, it would seem, must have overcome 
the parent; but no, undaunted through grace, 
Tie preserves a serene countenance, represses his 
bursting emotions, and calmly replies: u God, 
my sou, will provide a lamb." Reaching the 
4 



62 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

place, with the same composedness of mind, 
he builds an altar, lays the wood in order, and 
binding Isaac his son, lays him upon the altar 
upon the wood. He puts cords around those 
feet which had moved in filial obedience to pa- 
rental counsel, and ties the hands which he had 
taught to be raised in prayer. He must have 
told him his purpose, and the reason of it ; a tear, 
yea, many tears must have fallen as he spake ; 
he must have bid him farewell, kissed him for 
the last time for his own sake, and for Sarah, his 
dear mother's sake ; and then taking the knife, 
he is about giving the fatal blow. This, how- 
ever, is not suffered to fall. It is enough that 
Abraham has given him up. God accepts the 
offering, while he stays the uplifted hand. The 
gold tried in this, the hottest fire, is found pure, 
and so the fire is extinguished. A voice is 
heard ! It is the angel of the Lord calling to 
Abraham out of heaven, and saying: "Lay not 
thine hand upon the lad, neither do anything 
unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, 
seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine 
only son, from me." At the sound of t lie voice, 



ABEAHAM AND ISAAC. 63 

"Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and 
beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by 
his horns." Him he took and offered. The ex- 
change was a happy one ; happy to Abraham, 
happy to Isaac, and more acceptable to God. 

The account of the offering up of Isaac by 
Abraham, is fraught with instruction to our 
readers. 

What an illustrious instance is here furnished 
of the power of faith ! Among those worthies 
recorded by the Apostle in the eleventh chapter 
of the epistle to the Hebrews, as exhibiting the 
neture and efficacy of this divine principle of 
action, Abraham holds a conspicuous place. " By 
faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up 
Isaac, and he that had received the promises, 
offered up his only begotten son ; of whom it 
was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called ; 
accounting that God was able to raise him up 
even from the dead, from whence also he received 
him in a figure." Abraham believed God. This 
is faith ; a fixed, governing trust that Jehovah will 
accomplish what he promises, and will execute 
what is right. It is such a conception of the 



64 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

Divine being and attributes, as assures the mind 
that God is, and is righteous in all his ways, 
and will certainly reward the righteous. When 
God told Abraham that his promised son should 
be born, he believed it. When God told him 
that from this son the Messiah should descend, 
he believed that also. When God told him to 
tear that child from his embrace, witness the 
pangs of his death, and reduce his body to ashes ; 
though Abraham could not comprehend the 
reasons of this command, nor see how it could 
be reconciled with divine goodness and truth, 
yet he believed that such goodness and truth re- 
ally existed, and would one day be seen to exist ; 
and so, stifling the feelings of nature, he ascend- 
ed Mount Moriah, and bound the human sacrifice 
to the altar. Here was the exercise of a tranquil 
confidence in the Almighty. The patriarch kn e w 
that God spake to him, and that was enough. 
He knew that God would not promise, to disap- 
point, and that though Isaac should lie bleeding 
under the knife, God would miraculously restore 
him again. He expected that he should have t<> 
slay his son, and yet was persuaded that he shook! 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 65 

somehow receive him again, and generations un- 
born be, according to the prophecy, blessed in 
his life : "Accounting that God was able to raise 
him up even from the dead." He firmly believed 
that if he did not neglect Jehovah for Isaac, 
Jehovah would neglect neither father nor son. 
Such was the triumph of faith ! 

The patriarch furnishes likewises an impressive 
example of obedience. The Most High is entitled 
to the obedience of all his creatures. He pos- 
sesses wisdom and authority competent to assign 
the rule, and regulate the subject by it. He can 
have no motive to issue a wrong command, and 
his perfections forbid such a command ever to 
proceed forth from his throne. When his will, 
therefore, is made known in any instance, we 
should perform it. We are ready to do this in 
some instances, when it can be done without the 
expense of time and care, and the exercise of 
self-denial ; but the obedience which is illustrated 
in the history of Abraham, and which marks 
the Christian, is a universal obedience. God 
never demands too much, and all his demands, 
however great the present inconveniences to 



66 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

which they subject us, however severe the pain 
they cost, however roughly they come athwart 
our fond gratifications and long-cherished pur- 
poses, must nevertheless be fulfilled. When God 
commanded Abraham to part with Isaac — that 
dearest object of his love — raise the altar, extend 
him upon it, and make it smoke with his blood, 
there was no refusal. He looked up to the au- 
thority whence the trying order came, acknow- 
ledged its rectitude and obligatory power, and con- 
ducted accordingly. And while, like Abraham, 
we should obey in matters not pleasing to the 
flesh, as well as in those which involve the sacri- 
fice of no interest, our obedience too, like his, 
should be cordial and immediate. The will must 
go with the act. We must feel that God's com- 
mandments will not in the end be found grievous, 
though they may now seem to be so. No wrong 
feelings must exist, as though God were a hard 
master, stern and excessive in his exactions. 

So, also, our obedience must be immediate, 
without hesitation. We are to run in the way 
of Jehovah's wishes, when the path is once point- 
ed out. There was no arguing of Abraham with 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 67 

God, and no delay. The heart-rending order 
given in the night, he was found executing early 
in the morning. If Satan gets us to hesitate, he 
will soon get us to demur, then to cavil, and then 
stoutly to oppose. When God calls, we are to 
arise promptly, and follow speedily, leaving con- 
sequences with him, and " the dead to bury their 
dead." 

Further : The offering up of Isaac typifies the 
sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Mount Moriah 
was a shadow of Mount Calvary. On that same 
hill, where was seen the knife of a . father sus- 
pended over his darling son, was seen, two thou- 
sand years afterwards, God's only begotten .and 
dearly beloved Son, nailed, wan and motionless, 
to the accursed tree. "Where a ram was caught 
in the thicket and offered up, was a Lamb subse- 
quently slain, who " taketh away the sins of the 
world ;" and in the spectacle of the altar and the 
victim, were shadowed forth the thrilling tragedy 
of the Cross. "Abraham," said our Saviour to 
the Jews, " rejoiced to see my day, and he saw 
it and was glad." He saw in the sacrifice of the 
ram, provided instead of Isaac, the great sacrifice 



G8 A li R A II A H A XI) ISAAC. 

of Him who " was in the beginning with God, and 
who was God ;" — the promised seed, — the Shiloh, 
— the Messiah, — who "was wounded for our 
transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and 
by whose stripes we are healed." As Isaac carried 
the pile of wood up Moriah, Christ bore his cross 
up Calvary ; as Isaac was to suffer alone — the ser- 
vants being left at the foot of the mount — so Christ 
"trod the wine-press alone, and of the people 
there was none with him ;" as Isaac's hands and 
feet were bound by cords to the altar, Christ's 
hands and feet were fastened by nails to the tree ; 
as God was well pleased with the one sacrifice, 
so he was also with the other ; and as no one can 
question the reality of Abraham's faith and obedi- 
ence, so no one can question Jehovah's love for 
man, in consenting to part with his only begotten 
and dearly beloved, to die as their substitute. And 
surely if the Most High rewarded Abraham by 
establishing with him a gracious covenant, we 
ought to manifest our obligations and gratitude, 
by a cheerful, absolute surrender of ourselves, our 
all, to our heavenly Father. A view upon the altar 
<>f the ineffably glorious Lamb of God, — the oli- 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 69 

max of grandeur and humiliation, — those hands 
and feet spiked, that had built the stories of the 
heavens, and trodden the sapphire pavements of 
the celestial city — should penetrate the centre of 
our conscious being, stir the fountains of affection 
in their lowest depths, and send their streams in 
one broad, deep, unfailing current to Him, who 
thus "gave his life a ransom for many." 

One more lesson taught us by the patriarch, is, 
the duty of submission to the most afflictive pro- 
vidences. 

Many are the afflictions, not only of the 
righteous, but of all the children of men. There 
is no passing through this world without passing 
through more or less of trouble. It is a vale of 
tears. Tears are dropped by some of the pilgrims 
at every stage of their journey. We must drink 
of the cup of sorrow before filling our urns from 
the river of life. 

There is a right way, however, of encounter- 
ing these adverse providences ; and that is, with 
resignation. There must be a renunciation of 
our own purposes and hopes, and a resigning of 
ourselves to the Lord's will, as to the will of a 
4* 



70 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 

wise and kind parent. This it is often exceed- 
ingly difficult to do. Perfect acquiescence in 
God's wishes is a noble and rare attainment. 
But we see that it is attainable, and was attained 
by Abraham. He was enveloped in as dark a 
cloud as ever enwrapped a mortal ; yet there was 
no fretting, no murmuring, no repining. What 
conceivable trial can be more distressing than the 
one to which he was called ? to be the executioner 
of his own son, the child of his old age — a child 
not wayward and rebellious, but a dutiful, affec- 
tionate, and hopeful child ! To lose such a child 
in the ordinary course of providence, is often 
deemed an event well nigh insupportable. Hear 
Jacob, refusing to be comforted, saying, " I will 
descend into the grave after my Joseph, mourn- 
ing." Hear David exclaiming, even over un- 
grateful and wicked Absalom : " Would God 
I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my 
son I" But here we see Abraham about to de- 
stroy the fruit of his own loins with his own 
hand, calm and submissive, because the Lord had 
ordered it. 

Called we all shall one day be to monrn, if 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 71 

even now the habiliments of sorrow are not 
worn by us; for truthfully, alas, speaks the 
poet, — 

" There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there ! 
There is no fireside, howso'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair !" 

Let us then look to the patriarch Abraham and 
hush our sighs. We shall not be forced to bear 
up against such waves of tribulation as met 
and broke over him ! We shall never be baptized 
with his baptism of suffering. Friends near and 
dear we may be called to surrender, but their 
life's blood will not gush out by the blow we 
have given. God may take away our Isaacs, 
but will not torture us by ordering us to smite 
them. Nothing so painful, so agonizing, will be 
demanded of us. Let us then think of this in 
the hour of bereavement and distress, and be 
comforted. Let us think of the patriarch's severe 
trial, and "faint not;" of his submission, and 
do likewise. Let us sacrifice with Abraham, 
that we may pass an eternity in his bosom, 



VIII. 
LOT. 

The sacred Scriptures have been aptly com- 
pared to a mine of diamonds. As in such a 
mine there are gems of various water and value, 
so there are portions of Scripture more interest- 
ing and weighty than other portions ; and as in 
a mine of diamonds there is not a gem which 
is not precious — the minutest and dullest even 
having a value — so there is no part of the word 
of God which is not important, and from which 
spiritual profit may not be derived. The same 
is true of Scripture characters — saints of old — 
prophets and pious men of former days. Some 
of these were more distinguished for their excel- 
lences than others ; and yet, all whom inspi- 
ration has numbered among the children of God, 
had with their imperfections many redeeming 
qualities, which raised them above the mass of 
humanity by which they were surrounded. 

(72) 



LOT. 73 

This remark applies to Lot. He was not a 
diamond of the first water — not a Noah, nor an 
Enoch, nor an Abraham. There was a crust 
upon him obvious to the eye, which dimmed his 
polish; and yet the root of religion was in him, 
and the principles of grace implanted in his 
heart. 

Lot was the nephew of Abraham. In our ar- 
ticle on Abraham, we found this venerable pa- 
triarch making a generous proposition to his 
nephew, to take his choice of the extensive 
country before them. Lot took him at his word, 
chose the fairest and the best portion of the land 
to the east of Canaan, and while Abraham re- 
mained at Bethel, "pitched his tent towards 
Sodom." In this movement, Lot made two capi- 
tal mistakes — one in leaving Abraham, and the 
other in locating himself in Sodom. Abraham 
had showed him marked kindness, had been to 
him in the place of those parents of whom he 
was early deprived, and it was to his uncle's 
judicious counsel and supervision that he was 
mainly indebted for that measure of goodness 
by which he was characterized. It is hazardous 



74 LOT. 

to leave a faithful Christian friend — to pass be- 
yond the reach of those conservatory influences 
which his conversation, example, and instruc- 
tions bring to bear upon us. Many a person 
may date his ruin from the hour when he left 
the roof where the Bible was considered sacred 
and was daily perused, where sacrifices upon the 
domestic altar sent up their morning and evening 
incense, and where every thing tended to gen- 
erate and nourish in his heart the principles of 
virtue — for an abode where no holy example 
met his eyes, no pious counsel sounded in his 
ears, no family altar received him as one of the 
worshippers bowing around it, and where the 
momentous realities of eternity were disregarded 
and despised. But Lot not only left Abraham, 
— not only endangered his morals by putting 
himself at a distance from his improving society 
and fellowship, but went to a place where the 
very opposite of what Abraham had exhibited 
and inculcated prevailed. Sodom was a city 
where everything that was demoralizing and 
infectious centred ; — a sink where the sewers of 
corruption emptied. " Tho men of Sodom won 1 



LOT. 75 

wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly," 
so much so that among them all, ten could not 
be found who were not infamous for their vices 
and impiety. If we are asked why Lot went thi- 
ther, the cause must be resolved into his passion 
to accumulate wealth. His besetting sin was 
covetousness. Though he had much, though 
Jehovah had blessed him and greatly increased 
his possessions, he inordinately desired more. 
Hence the fertility and beauty of Sodom, promis- 
ing this, attracted him toward it as a place of 
residence, though it brought him into connection 
with the vilest idolaters. how many, in their 
anxious pursuit of wealth, in order that their 
worldly affairs might prosper, have gone them- 
selves, and taken their families with them, where 
their religious interests were sure to suffer ! — as 
if the welfare of the perishing body was of 
greater importance than the welfare of the im- 
perishable soul ; as if treasure on earth was 
superior to treasure in heaven ! 

But Lot paid dear for his evil choice. Pitch- 
ing his tent in Sodom, disappointment, disaster, 
and anguish were his ; "for they that will be rich, 



76 LOT. 

fall into snares, and into many foolish and hurt- 
ful lusts, which drown men in destruction and 
perdition." Dwelling in that seat of wickedness, 
his heart was perpetually pained with what 
he beheld, and his soul vexed with the abomina- 
ble deeds of its guilty inhabitants. Once he was 
stripped of all his property and taken captive, 
from which captivity he was rescued by the 
timely and heroic interposition of Abraham ; 
and again was he burned out of house and home, 
and obliged to flee for his life to the mountains. 
Of this last catastrophe which befel him and 
the devoted cities of the plain, the Bible gives 
us a particular account. As he was sitting in 
the gate of Sodom, at even -tide, he beheld 
two strangers approaching, whom, by a kind of 
instinctive courtesy, he rose up to meet, and 
with generous hospitality welcomed to his dwell- 
ing. They at first declined his proffered kind- 
ness, but at length were prevailed upon to accept , 
it. No sooner, however, had they come under 
his roof, been introduced to his family, and par- 
taken of the entertainment provided for them, 
than his house was besieged by the inhabitants 



LOT. 77 

of the city, who demanded that his guests should 
be brought out, to endure the perpetration of 
a species of crime too unnatural and loathsome 
to be named. Lot shielded his guests by pro- 
testing against the shameful demand, beseeching 
the citizens to "do not so wickedly," and remon- 
strating with them against such abusive treat- 
ment to strangers. But his efforts were vain. 
The mob persisted in their iniquitous purpose, 
and even went so far as to threaten Lot himself 
with violence, who was obliged to seek refuge 
from their assaults within the walls of his dwell- 
ing. The heavenly messengers within — for such 
his guests proved to be — perceiving his perilous 
situation, caught hold of him quickly, dreAv him 
through the open door, closed it, and smote the 
people without with blindness. 

Things in Sodom had now reached such a 
pass, that the long-suffering of God toward its 
wicked inhabitants was exhausted. They had 
long been filling up the measure of their im- 
piety, sensuality, and injustice, and were ripe for 
destruction. The cry of the city — the cry of its 
abominations — waxing louder and louder, and 



78 LOT. 

calling for vengeance, had entered into the ears 
of the Lord of Sabbath, and judgment was now 
to be executed. "Hast thou," said the guests 
of Lot to him, "hast thou here any besides? 
Son-in-law, and thy sons and thy daughters, and 
whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out 
of this place. We will destroy this place, be- 
cause the cry of them is waxen great before the 
face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us 
to destroy it." Their commission was not dis- 
credited by Lot, w J promptly communicated 
the intelligence to those who had married his 
daughters, and urged them to fly. "Up!" was 
his stirring, pointed warning; "up; get you out 
of this place, for the Lord will destroy it." But 
he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting, and 
they heeded not his words. No portentous sig- 
nals, no thundering menaces indicated the hour 
of vengeance to be so near. " It is not impos- 
sible that the evening was serene and beau- 
tiful. AVe can imagine the silver moon for the 
last time throwing a mild and softened radi- 
ance on the city and across the plain ; and num- 
bers of the people gaily sporting in so gentle 



LOT. 79 

a light and air ; and no alarm by ominons signs 
and elemental disorder. Nature keeps the secret 
of her great Governor. If conscience and the 
words of Lot do not startle, nothing shall. But 
what was there latent in that soft tranquillity ? 
There was the hovering power of Divine justice, 
— the spirit of retribution, just growing to the 
intensity to reveal itself in resistless flame !"* 

Lot could not delay for the unbelieving, mock- 
ing mortals who derided his warning, and left 
them to their fate, while he hastened away from 
the devoted spot. And as his progress was not 
sufficiently rapid, and the danger was imminent, 
the celestial messenger " laid hold upon his hand, 
and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the 
hands of his two daughters — the Lord being 
merciful unto them — and brought him forth, and 
set him without the city, and said : Escape for 
thy life, look not behind thee, neither tarry thou 
in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest thou 
be consumed." As the mountain was some dis- 
tance off, Lot asked permission to seek shelter in 

*John Foster. 



80 LOT. 

a small city nearer, called Zoar, — which request 
was granted. That city he entered, and his 
daughters with him, just as the sun had risen ; 
and as from that place of safety he looked back 
upon the plain, "lo, the smoke of the country- 
went up as the smoke of a furnace," for floods of 
fire and brimstone had descended upon it from 
the Lord out of heaven. The sun that morning 
looked for the last time on Sodom ! Its beautifid 
scenery, its fragrant flowers, its fertile fields, its 
fruitful trees, its rich soil, where nature bloomed 
and which depraved man had polluted — its flocks 
of sheep and goats, its herds of cattle, its houses 
and the atrociously wicked people who dwelt 
therein — were all, by one and the same blow, 
stricken out of the world ; and from the scene 
of destruction a vast cloud of smoke rose, in 
awful grandeur, to the skies ! A great lake or 
sea, called the Dead Sea, now marks the spot 
where Sodom and Gomorrah and other cities of 
the vale of Siddim stood; — the waters of which 
are of a dull green color, bitter and nauseous to 
the taste, and no living thing inhabits them. 
Lot, fearing to dwell in Zoar, might have 



LOT. 81 

returned to Abraham, but preferred, for some 
reason which does not appear, to dwell in the 
mountain. Here he was overtaken with evil, 
drawn into sin, and his old age covered with 
disgrace. 

As we have already observed, Lot was far 
from being perfect ; — the gem was surrounded 
by an unsightly crust. We must say that he 
was a good man — because, when Abraham by 
Divine command left his native country, he went 
with him, — because, in Sodom, instead of par- 
taking in the sins of the place, his soul was 
vexed thereby from day to day, — because he 
obeyed the voice of the Lord in fleeing from 
Sodom, — and because he is denominated by the 
apostle Peter " a righteous man." Yet we mar- 
vel that a Christian should have gone to Sodom, 
knowing how corrupt a place it was ; or, having 
removed there, that he should stay there ! Sad 
indeed was his choice, and melancholy the har- 
vest reaped from the well-watered and fertile 
plain ! Grod grant that our readers may imitate 
his virtues, avoid his errors, and escape his 
trials. 



VIII. 
LOT'S WIFE. 

In the monitory words of Jesus — " Remem- 
ber Lot's wife," we have a sufficient reason for 
devoting a brief article to her history. 

When Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities in the 
vale of Sicldim, noted for the beauty of their lo- 
cation, the fertility of their soil, and the wealth 
and wickedness of their inhabitants, were about 
to be visited with a tempest of divine vengeance, 
and the Lord miraculously interposed to save 
Lot, who, just and righteous, had preserved him- 
self uncontaminated amidst the corruption and 
licentious conduct of the ungodly around him, 
he interposed also in behalf of his family. 
"Arise," said the angelic spirits who came to res- 
cue him from the approaching storm, — "arise, 
take thy wife and thy two daughters, lest thou be 
consumed in the iniquity of the city, and fly, and 
look not behind thee, nor stay in all the plain." 



lot's wife. 83 

Lot, obedient to the heavenly mandate, and 
aided by the visible personal agency of the an- 
gels, hastened forward across the devoted plain, 
soon to go down in an earthquake and tempest 
of fire, and stopped not till he had entered the 
appointed asylum of safety, — the city of Zoar. 

Not so his wife. Whether she doubted the 
truth of the divine declaration that Sodom should 
be destroyed, or was curious to see the mode of 
its destruction, or hankered after the treasures 
she was forced to abandon — she lingered, fell be- 
hind her husband — looked back upon the city, 
and, overtaken by the sulphurous storm, was in- 
stantly struck lifeless, and yet standing, statue- 
like — a lasting monument of human folly and 
God's wrath ! 

As to the specific nature of the judgment sent 
upon her, there has been a diversity of sentiment. 
Some have supposed that, without any material 
change in her physical organization, her flesh and 
blood were so charged with saline particles, as to 
be kept from putrefaction, and thus preserved for 
ages; others that she was actually converted 
into a pillar of salt ; and others still, regarding a 



81 lot's wife. 

pillar as a memorial, and a pillar of salt as a con- 
tinual memorial, merely understand by her re- 
corded fate, that, as a signal punishment for her 
violation of Jehovah's orders, and her passionate 
attachment to the vain objects of earth, she was to 
be a perpetual memorial of the Divine displea- 
sure. It is not necessary to decide which of these 
opinions is the correct opinion. It is enough 
to know that, slighting the injunctions of the 
angels, and her inordinate affections clinging to 
the city which she was commanded to forsake, 
God in his awful justice inflicted a most striking 
punishment upon her. 

If any reader thinks that the judgment was 
unreasonably severe — was disproportioned to the 
sin committed, let him consider how her conduct 
was in contradiction to an express mandate of the 
Most High which had just been given, and that 
such disbelief of Jehovah's declarations — such 
contempt for his authority — is the very essence 
of all crime. If it was so trifling a sin, then 
there was as trifling an excuse for committing it. 
If it was so trifling a matter merely to look back, 
then why look back ? why in so little a matter 



lot's wife. 85 

not abstain from disobedience, and respect the 
authority of the Infinite? If, when God had 
thus manifested towards her marked kindness by 
interposing in her behalf — snatching her as a 
brand from the burning, — it was of little conse- 
quence whether she conformed to the requisition 
of his law or went antagonistical to it, — why not 
conform ? why transgress ? why doubt when she 
ought to believe, and linger when she ought to 
hasten, and pause when she ought to run, and 
look back when a voice from heaven was sound- 
ing in her ears — " Look not behind thee !" It is 
to be feared that many regard trifling violations 
of the divine law as venial ; but there are no 
venial, no trifling sins ; and it is by little sins, as 
they are called, that towering masses of guilt are 
rolled up, and the characters of men formed and 
manifested. 

Lot's wife, smothered and stiffened as she 
stood by saline incrustations, ancient travellers 
have affirmed they have beheld. To the same 
effect is the testimony of Josephus, a Jew, who 
declares, (Antiq. i. 11, 4,) not only that such 
a strange pillar had existed, but that he had seen 
5 



86 LOT'S WIFE. 

it.* Clement of Borne and Irenens make similar 
statements. It is quite doubtful, however, whe- 
ther they indeed saw what they thought they did. 
It is quite surprising, that if a monument so singu- 
lar stood for ages on the borders of the Dead Sea, 
none of the sacred historians or the poets should 
have alluded to the fact. But they have never 
referred to it, and modern travellers and pilgrims 
have diligently sought for it in vain. 

This judgment of God on Lot's wife, Jesus 
enjoins upon us to u remember ;" and the lessons 
which it teaches are various. 

Eemember, as she dwelt in Sodom, and God 
destroyed that city because of the impiety of its 
inhabitants, — how odious sin is in his sight, — how 
it is the abominable thing he hateth ; and let the 



* His language is, — " But Lot's wife continually turning 
back to view the city as she went from it, and being too 
nicely inquisitive what became of it, although God had for- 
bidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt, for I 
have seen it, and it remains to this day." An old tradition 
is related by Reyland, that as fast as any portion of this sa- 
line corpse fixed to the soil was worn away by the action of 
the elements, the waste was supernaturally supplied. 



lot's wife. 87 

example of Sodom, set before us, deter us from 
committing iniquity. 

Kemember, as she looked back, probably from 
a reluctance to part with her possessions, and from 
a strong desire to take some of them with her — 
not to be dazzled by the deceptive charms of the 
world or captivated by the things that perish. 
There is something better than earthly substance, 
and on such vanities our thoughts and desires 
should not be concentrated. Man was formed 
for something higher and better than the amass- 
ing of wealth ; and to be mainly occupied in so 
doing alienates the affections from God, degrades 
the soul, and provokes chastisement. We are to 
" seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness." This should be first in our affections and 
first in the objects of pursuit. He who is satis- 
fied with what of earth he has, " may smile upon 
his stool, while Alexander weeps upon the throne 
of the world." 

Kemember, as she lingered after she had start- 
ed from Sodom, and stopped, — there is danger 
even after the arm of God's power has been 
reached forth from heaven to pluck us from im- 



88 LOT'S WIFE. 

pending destruction — after we have been aroused 
from a state of thoughtlessness and unconcern, 
and professedly turned our backs upon the world 
and sin — of relaxing our exertions, faltering in 
our course, yielding to temptations, and ceasing 
to persevere. 

The work is not done when we have passed 
the strait gate which opens into the narrow 
way. Not less serious, not less watchful, not less 
earnest and determined, must we be than we 
were before. Many are the devices of Satan and 
his emissaries, to draw us aside, cast us down, or 
bring us to a stand. But as Bunyan's pilgrim, 
after leaving the city of Destruction for Mount 
Zion, when accosted by those who by flattery and 
threats would prevail upon him to return, put his 
fingers in his ears and rushed forward, crying, 
"Life, life, eternal life!" so should we move on 
and stop not till our feet press the golden pave- 
ments of the New Jerusalem. 

Kemember, that her obedience was a jxirtial 
obedience. It was well enough as far as it went, 
but it did not go far enough. It was well that 
she did not behave as did her impious sons-in-law, 



lot's wife. 89 

nor spurn the message of the angels ; but it was 
not well that her mind looked back and then her 
eyes, and that, a fugitive across the plain, her 
steps were arrested. Our obedience must be en- 
tire. " Then shall I not be ashamed, when I 
have respect unto all thy commandments." 

And, once more, if Lot's wife perished because 
she did not go far enough, what will become of 
us if we do not go even as far as she ? If she, 
though she came out of Sodom, was overtaken 
by the fiery storm, what will become of us if we 
continue in the place over which the reddening 
storm is gathering — carnally secure, wedded to 
our idols ? This question each reader can an- 
swer for himself. 



IX. 
ESAU AND JACOB. 

Though the promise of a numerous offspring 
had been made to Isaac, and he had been united 
by marriage to Eebekah twenty years, yet no 
tokens of approaching paternity cheered his heart. 
In these circumstances, he looked to " Him who 
setteth the solitary in families," and was heard of 
Him, and had granted the desire of his soul. 
The answer to his prayer was the gift of two 
sons, whose strife, ere yet they were born, was a 
pre-intimation of the future variance which would 
subsist between their respective posterities. The 
first-born was of a ruddy complexion and was 
called Esau, to denote the sanguinary disposition 
by which he and his descendants would be cha- 
racterized. He had not, too, a soft, smooth skin, 
like other infants ; but was covered with hair, 
indicating the possession o£ unusual constitutional 



ESAU AND JACOB. 91 

vigor. The second-born, however, who was 
called Jacob, had no such marks. 

The different tempers and propensities of the 
two boys were early exhibited. While Esau 
was active and laborious, addicted to ranging 
the field, and was skilled or expert in hunting, 
Jacob, of less robust make and of a more quiet 
disposition, preferred the more calm and easy 
duties of the pastoral life. The daring and lofty 
spirit which moved Esau to take delight in the 
toils, perils, and adventures of the chase, won for 
him the partiality of the father, — while the gen- 
tle and tranquil temper of Jacob, inclining him 
to pass his days in and around his tent, made 
him the favorite of the mother. And these 
parental preferences proved in this case, as they 
have also in a multitude of others, a fruitful 
source of evil. An unequal distribution of pa- 
rental favors or affections sows seeds of discord, 
and kindles those baleful passions which often 
break out in deeds of violence and blood. Parents 
should be hereby warned against making any 
invidious distinctions between their children, or 
showing a decided partiality for one, to the neglect 



92 ESAU AND JACOB. 

of another. There may, indeed, be that in one 
child Avhich renders him more loveable than 
others in the same household group, — something 
so charming in his disposition and so winning in 
his manners, as to give him an easier entrance to, 
and a deeper hold upon a parent's heart ; but the 
fact, if in any instance it be a fact, should not, 
by the words and actions of the parent, be made 
manifest to the other "olive plants around the 
table," if harmony and good feeling in the family 
would be preserved. 

Kebekah, the mother, previous to the birth of 
the children, had been divinely informed that 
they should be the heads of. two mighty nations, 
differing in their tempers, habits, and country, 
and that, notwithstanding the right of primogen- 
iture, the elder should serve the younger. This 
she doubtless told Jacob, which communication 
roused him to make efforts for the attainment of 
what he and she regarded as properly belonging 
to him. 

The honor and privilege of seniority, or the 
important distinctions belonging to the elder 
brother as his birth-right, were of acknowled 
value. 



ESAU AND JACOB. 93 

The first-born was peculiarly consecrated to 
God. "The first-born of thy sons," was the 
command of Jehovah, — "the first-born of thy 
sons shalt thou give unto me." 

The first-born was elevated in rank next to his 
parents. "Keuben," said the dying patriarch, 
when all his sons were gathered about him, 
'ranged like zodiacal signs around his bed:' — 
" Eeuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and 
the beginning of my strength, — the excellency 
of dignity, and the excellency of power." 

The first-born, before the giving of the law of 
Moses, had a right to the priesthood, and perform- 
ed the functions of the sacerdotal office. The 
first-born received a double portion of the father's 
property above his brethren. (Deut. xxi. 17.) 
" He shall acknowledge the first-born by giving 
him a double portion of all that he hath, for he 
is the beginning of his strength." And, above 
all, there was an inspired assurance that " the 
seed of the woman, who should bruise the ser- 
pent's head," — the illustrious Shiloh — the glori- 
ous Messiah, — the Desire of all Nations, — was to 
come in the line of the first-born. Such advan- 
5* 



94 ESAU AND JACOB. 

tages of dignity, authority, property, and promise, 
were wrapped up in the birth-right, — belonged to 
Esau ; and Jacob sought for a favorable opportu- 
nity of extorting them from him. 

Such an opportunity ere long presented itself. 
The life of the hunter is necessarily one of toil, 
danger, and privation. The native red man of 
this country often roams the forest for days, 
without finding game within the reach of his bow 
or rifle, and returns to his wigwam, wearied, 
discouraged, and faint. It was after an unsuccess- 
ful excursion of this kind, that Esau on a certain 
occasion came back disappointed. He had sought 
for sustenance in vain, had captured no | 
and, fatigued and famished, turned his steps for 
food towards his father's house. Arriving there, 
he found Jacob with a savory dish of pottage, 
and asked permission to share it with him. Jacob, 
more disposed to make a profitable bargain than 
to show an act of kindness to his brother, and 
coveting the birth-right, availed himself of this 
exigency in his brother's condition to get it ; and 
offered to part with the prepared food in exchange 
for it. Esau, pinched with hunger, depressed in 
spirits, and swayed by a carnal mind, inconsider- 



ESAU AND JACOB. 95 

ately and profanely parted with, it on these terms, 
— remarking : " Behold, I am at the point to die, 
and what profit shall this birth-right do to me?" 
Thus transferred he to Jacob all the rights of 
seniority, and confirmed the contract by a solemn 
oath : — a mean transaction on the part of Jacob, 
■in thus taking advantage of his brother's neces- 
sities to obtain what was of high value, and 
giving no equivalent ; and a rash, criminal act 
on.the part of Esau, in thus treating with contempt 
precious covenanted blessings. And yet how 
often have like deeds been practised since ! How 
many, when summoned by the stern voice of 
want to part with their possessions, have received 
for them, from professed benefactors and friends, 
not a tithe of their true value ! and how many, 
in obedience to the clamors of appetite and pas- 
sion, have relinquished health, character, and 
virtue ! 

One ungenerous act paves the way for another ; 
and Jacob having basely obtained the birth-right 
from his brother, proceeds to defraud his father 
Isaac of the blessing. Instead of informing his 
father what he had done, and claiming the birth- 



96 ESAU AND JACOB. 

right, in accordance with the letter of the contract, 
he, in order to seenre it, resorts to indirect and 
dishonest means. In these he has his mother's 
connsel and aid. What can be expected of child- 
ren, if, to their knowledge, their parents connive 
at injustice? What shall restrain them from 
wrong-doing, if in this they are countenanced 
and abetted by a mother's advice and coopera- 
tion? Kebekah, through partiality for her 
favorite son, sinned herself, by proposing sinister, 
crooked measures, and was chastised for it ; and 
the parent who encourages and assists a child jn 
concocting and executing any scheme of fraud, 
will most certainly "receive that recompense of 
his error which is meet." Isaac, in the hearing 
of Eebekah, having called Esau, said, "Behold, 
now I am old, I know not the day of my death ; 
take I pray thee thy Aveapons, and go out to the 
field and take me some venison ;* and make me 



* Having observed, on a hill-side at a distance, four beauti- 
ful gazelles, two or three of our men started in pursuit. In 
a few minutes we heard the report of a match-lock, and saw 
one of the gazelles bounding down the hill on three legs, the 
other being broken by the shot. It was coming directly 



ESAU AND JACOB. 97 

savory meat such as I love, and bring it to me 
that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before 
I die." Upon this, Kebekak immediately con- 
trived how her fond Jacob might be put in the 
place of Esau, and the blessing be pronounced 
upon him. 

Her device was an artful, though an unwarrant- 
able one. As all the senses of Isaac were dull 
and feeble through age, she passes off Jacob upon 
him as Esau, by putting upon him Esau's raiment, 
and " skins of the kids of goats upon his hands 
and upon the smooth of his neck," and giving 
him bread and meat which she had carefully 
prepared, and sending him in with instructions 
how to speak to his blind father. Attired, 

towards us, and suddenly found itself hemmed in, when the 
strange Arab who had joined us at Mount Hor, struck it down 
with a stone, severed its head from its body in an instant, 
and bore it away as his part of the spoil. Two Bedouins held 
it up by the hind legs, while a third stripped the skin off in 
a few seconds. We purchased it, and had a mess of the same 
kind of venison which Esau used to take on these hills nearly 
four thousand years ago, and which his father Isaac loved so 
well, — and for good reasons, if it were as well flavored as 
we found this to be.— Dr. Durbiivs Observations in the East. 



y« ESAU -AND JACOB. 

however, and guarded thus, he was unable to 
counterfeit his brother's voice. " My father," said 
he. The patriarch is suspicious, and exclaims, 
" Who art thou, my son?" It was not the voice 
of the son for whom he was looking. Jacob said, 
"I am Esau, thy first-born. I have done accord- 
ing as thou badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit 
and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless 
me." Isaac is not yet satisfied that the hairy 
• hunter is before him, and desires to feel his hands. 
These he judges to be Esau's, and yet there is 
something unaccountable, for while the hands 
are the hands of Esau, the voice is Jacob's. He 
asks him therefore again : "Art thou my very 
son Esau?" and, on being solemnly assured that 
he was, proceeds to bless him; and thus, by an 
artifice wholly unjustifiable, the coveted property 
and dominion are secured. 

Jacob had hardly received the full, comprehen- 
sive blessing, which the patriarch had bestowed, 
and left the room, before Esau, returning from the 
chase, entered it, and approaching his deenj.it 
and sightless father, announced his arrival. At 
that well-known voice, the tones of which had so 



ESAU AND JACOB. 99 

often been music to his ears and sent thrills of 
gladness to his heart, he now "trembled very 
exceedingly," for the imposition was discovered! 
"Who, where is he," said the aged and afflicted 
saint, " Who, where is he that hath taken venison 
and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all 
before thou earnest, and have blessed him !" 
And no less disappointed and shocked was Esau. 
If the father "trembled," the son "cried with a 
great and exceeding bitter cry ; and said unto his 
father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father ? 
bless me, even me also, my father ! and again 
he lifted up his voice and wept." But there was 
no change of purpose in the patriarch. Either 
recollecting the divine oracle, or finding himself 
more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Grhost 
when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he perceived 
that Jehovah, as it were, said amen to it, and he 
would not reverse the word which had proceeded 
from his lips. That he spake by a divine afflatus, 
is evident from the remark of the Apostle Paul, 
""by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob." 

The birth -right was thus gone forever ! It was 
divinely conferred upon another, and confirmed, 
and could not be revoked I 



100 ESAU AND JACOB. 

We pity Esau, while we blame him. how 
did the mess of pottage then look, contrasted 
with that long catalogue of golden blessings 
which constituted the substance of the patriarchal 
benediction! Truly and significantly observeth 
Bishop Hall ; — " never was there any meat, 
excepting the forbidden fruit, so dear bought as 
this broth of Jacob !" 

Esau was thrown into a paroxysm of grief at 
the removal from his mind of those visions of 
future greatness and glory which, as the eldest 
son of Isaac, he had long cherished. His younger, 
rival brother had now those sacred and far-reach- 
ing blessings which once lawfull}- belonged to 
himself, but which he had profanely sold, and of 
which the patriarchal benediction pronounced 
upon the head of that brother, had forever de- 
prived him. But he was not left utterly discon- 
solate. Though he could not have the power 
and privileges which he had forfeited — that 
birthright which he had so despised as to part 
with it for a morsel of meat, — his father gave him 
all he consistently could. To his entreaty with 
tears — " Bless me, even me also, O my father," 
Isaac said to him : " Behold, thy dwelling shall 



ESAU AND JACOB. 101 

be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of 
heaven from above ; and by thy sword shalt 
thou live, and shalt serve thy brother ; and it 
shall come to pass when thou shalt have the 
dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from 
off thy neck." 

As Esau rose from his knees, on which he had 
bowed to receive this benediction, and retired 
from the tent, he was heard to say — " The days 
of mourning for my father are at hand; then 
will I slay my brother Jacob." These threaten- 
ing words were blasting to Kebekah's and Jacob's 
peace. They revealed what might have been 
expected — that malignant passions were raging 
in that breast — that a spirit of hatred and re- 
venge was kindled up there against the sup- 
planter Jacob, which the decease of Isaac would 
give occasion to burst forth into a consuming 
flame. And now the guilty mother, who had 
taken upon herself the responsibility of the 
recent contrivance, which required for its execu- 
tion dissembling of the truth, and who had 
quieted the fears of the reluctant Jacob to the 
adoption of her scheme, by saying, " Upon me 



102 ESAU AND JACOB. 

be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice ;" 
reaped the bitter fruits of her crooked policy, 
by being obliged to part with that son immedi- 
ately — nay, urge him to fly to Mesopotamia, as 
a place of refuge from the exasperated Esau. 
Jacob accordingly departed, Isaac invoking the 
benison of Almighty God to attend him ; and 
heavy was the heart of Rebekah as she watched 
the lessening form of her cherished son receding 
from her view, till it was lost on ascending a hill 
which looked down on the pasture grounds of 
Beersheba. 

ISTor less sad was Jacob, as evening drew on 
and found him solitary upon a plain where he 
passed the night, the damp ground for his couch, 
and stones for his pillow. Doubtless while pur- 
suing his lonely way he reflected upon the un- 
worthy part he had acted, repented thereof, and 
sought divine forgiveness therefor; for as he 
slept under the canopy of the skies, the si 
shedding their cold light upon him stretched out 
and weary, he had a very extraordinary dream, 
in which " he beheld a ladder set up on the 
earth, and the top of it readied to Heaven, and 



ESAU AND JACOB. 103 

lo; the angels of God ascending and descending 
upon it." Above this ladder or stair, (the ori- 
ginal word is uncertain,) the Lord stood, and 
confirmed his father's blessing, by assuring him 
that it should be completely fulfilled. Jacob 
awaking — the vision gone — was filled with re- 
verent dread, for he felt that he was on holy 
ground, and exclaimed, " This is none other 
than the house of God and the gate of heaven ;" 
and as Jehovah had been in that place, and he 
knew it not — had protected, comforted, and 
blessed him there — he by a solemn vow dedi- 
cated himself to the Eternal. There are those 
who think that this was the spot and time of 
Jacob's conversion. Perhaps it was. He appears 
a changed man from henceforth ; and with faith - 
in God, peace in his soul, and a staff in his hand, 
he travels on to the house of his uncle Laban in 
Haran. 

Here he was hospitably received, and remained, 
in hopes that time would subdue Esau's wrath; 
Here he served seven years for Rachel, which 
" seemed unto him but few days for the love lie 
had to her;" for, as one remarks, "when there 



104 ESAU AND JACOB. 

is nothing to obstruct a union, love is impatient 
of delay, but when great difficulties interpose, it 
stimulates to a patient and resolute course of 
action in order to surmount them. Where the 
object is highly valued, we think little of the 
labor and expense of obtaining it. ' Love en- 
dureth all things.' " Seven additional years also 
did he serve ere yet he was permitted to call 
Eachel his wife, for, having dealt treacherously 
with Esau, he in turn was dealt treacherously 
with by Laban. 

As in this his new home, he suffered repeated 
injury and oppression from his uncle, whose be- 
setting sin was avarice, he determined, favored 
notwithstanding as he had been by a kind Pro- 
vidence in his basket and in his store, to leave 
the house of Laban and return again to the land 
of his fathers. Esau, the meanwhile, had been 
growing powerful in Idumea, and Jacob longed 
to have friendship restored between them. To 
this end he sent messengers to him, with instruc- 
tions, if possible, to bring about a reconciliation. 
But when these messengers returned with the 
alarming intelligence that Esau was advancing 



ESAU AND JACOB. 105 

on him with four hundred men, he was greatly 
distressed, and divided the people that was with 
him, and the flocks and herds and the camels, 
into two bands, saying, " If Esau come to the 
one company and smite it, then the other com- 
pany which is left shall escape ;" and having 
taken this wise precaution, he invoked in his 
behalf the interposition of the Almighty. Low 
before God, his pleadings are those of the kind 
husband, the affectionate father, and the sincere 
devout Christian. After enumerating God's acts 
of benevolence towards him, reminding him of 
his gracious promises, and disclaiming all* per- 
sonal merit, his supplicatory language is — " De- 
liver me I pray thee from the hand of my bro- 
ther, from the hand of Esau ; for I fear him, lest 
he will come and smite me and the mother with 
the children." His prayer was effectual. "As 
a prince he had power with God, and prevailed;" 
for when, across the ford of Jabbok, they ap- 
proached each other, Jacob respectfully bowed, 
Esau magnanimously "ran to meet him, and 
embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed 
him." Both wept, both felt the warm beatings 



106 ESAU AND JACOB. 

of each other's hearts; both tenderly inquired 
after each other's welfare, and both parted with 
an affectionate farewell, — Jacob hereby teaching 
ns that " a soft answer turneth away wrath," and 
Esan hereby teaching us that " it is a glory to a 
man to pass by a transgression." 

The two brothers came together again at the 
funeral rites which were paid to their deceased 
father. But little more is known relative to Esau 
than that he had a long line of descendants, who 
took pride in dating back to^ him as their manly, 
independent, illustrious ancestor. 

Jacob settled in the land of Canaan, and was 
sorely tried by the misconduct of his sons. His 
lamentation, when his beloved Joseph was sup- 
posed to have been devoured by some evil beast, 
when his sons were treated as spies in Egypt, 
whither an extended famine had forced them to 
go in order to buy corn, and when Simeon was 
confined there as a hostage for their return, was, 
" Me have ye bereaved of my children; Joseph 
is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Ben- 
jamin away ; all these things are against me." 
His sun, however, had a serene and bright de- 



ESAU AND JACOB. 107 

cline. His last days were passed in Egypt with 
his family around him, all favored with a large 
share of earthly prosperity. Convened together 
around his bed, he gave them his benediction — 
a blessing full of the loftiest thought, most poeti- 
cal diction, and most graphic imagery — and died 
with an unfaltering trust in the Almighty. " I 
have waited," was his devout exclamation, " I 
have waited for thy salvation, O Lord;" and 
when he had made an end of speaking, he gave 
up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. 
The glance we have taken of these two bro- 
thers, shows that there was a striking difference 
between them, Esau was of a sanguine tempera- 
ment, Jacob of a phlegmatic temperament ; Esau 
was of an active, daring spirit, Jacob of a quiet, 
gentle spirit; Esau had a predilection for the 
bold and hazardous enterprises of the hunter, 
Jacob for the tranquil safety and pleasing occu- 
pations of a shepherd's life ; Esau had more 
about him that was sensual, Jacob that was self- 
ish ; Esau had more of magnanimity, Jacob more 
of prudence ; Esau had the most courage, Jacob 
the most cunning ; Esau reached his ends by 



108 ESAU AND JACOB. 

force, Jacob by policy ; Esau in r a direct and 
vigorous manner, Jacob in a circuitous manner. 
Theologians have agreed to extol Jacob and dis- 
parage Esau ; but while we would detract naught 
from Jacob as a child of grace and of the pro- 
mise, we must plead guilty, with another, to "an 
attachment to poor Esau, as a sincere and stal- 
wart son of nature, with a strong heart, fit to be 
the strong heart of a people." 



X. 
JOSEPH. 

We have hesitated about putting Joseph 
among our group of Scripture Portraits, not 
because he is a less interesting and instructive 
character than those others which have passed 
under review, but because he is so much more 
so. We have been apprehensive that the simple 
story of his life, as detailed by the sacred pen- 
man, would be marred by any attempt on our 
part to repeat it. As " beauty unadorned is most 
adorned," so the charming record of this charm- 
ing personage, as found within the lids of the 
Bible, cannot be improved. 

" To gild refined gold, — to paint the lily, — 
To throw a perfume on the violet, — 
To smooth the ice — to add another hue to the rainbow — 
Or, with taper-light, to seek the beauteous 
Eye of heaven to garnish, — is wasteful 
And ridiculous excess." Shakspeare. 

6 (109) 



110 JOSEPH. 

But while this is so, and any attempt of ours to 
perfect the inspired original would be presump- 
tuous and vain, yet as our very familiarity with 
the history in the words of holy writ, may pre- 
vent us from being as much impressed by it as 
if it came to us in words and a style with which 
we are less familiar^ — for such, as our minds are 
constituted, is often found to be the case, — we 
venture to gather out the most prominent inci- 
dents in the character and life of Joseph, and 
present them in our own language. 

Joseph was regarded by his father with pecu- 
liar affection. " Israel," says the sacred historian, 
u loved Joseph more than all his children." And 
why ? Because he was the first born of his be- 
loved Kachel ? — because he was a lad of so much 
promise ? — because of his gentle, affectionate 
disposition ? — because he had not tried his father 
as the other sons had? — because he was so 
watchful and prompt in ministering to his father's 
comfort? Possibly, probably, indeed, all this 
was true touching Joseph, — that he was promis- 
ing, amiable, and dutiful, in a high degree ; but 
not on this account is his father said to have 



JOSEPH. Ill 

cherished a superior affection for him, but " be- 
cause he was the son of his old age." Never 
are men more pleased with having descendants 
than when they are themselves about descending 
to the grave. Such a descendant of Jacob was 
Joseph ; born when his father was advanced in 
life. Hence this partiality for him. A weakness 
in Jacob, it must be admitted ; a weakness which 
further manifested itself in making for him "a 
coat of many colors," an embroidered garment 
worn only by individuals of distinction. A little 
reflection would have showed Jacob that such a 
badge of merit or parental fondness would array 
against him the opposition of the other sons. 
And such was the fact. Older than he, as much 
entitled in their own estimation as he to their 
father's affections, passions of envy and jealousy 
were kindled against him in their hearts. " His 
brethren hated him, and could not speak peace- 
ably unto him." This parental fondness, there- 
fore, defeated itself. Instead of benefiting Jo- 
seph, it injured him. Though the innocent sub- 
ject of his father's misguided partiality, it made 
him ridiculed and abused by the other members 



112 JOSEPH. 

of the family. Let no parent conduct in a simi- 
lar manner, by expressing partiality for any par- 
ticular child — if he would not harm both him 
and the others — cause him to be vain or envied, 
and the others to be jealous and resentful. This 
malice against Joseph on the part of his brethren, 
because of his engrossment of parental love, was 
heightened by some testimony which he felt it 
his duty to bear against certain iniquitous con- 
duct of which they had been guilty, as also by 
certain dreams foreshadowing his future great- 
ness, which he had, and which in the simplicity 
and guilelessness of youth he told. These dreams, 
interpreted by his brethren to signify that they 
would be forced to acknowledge his superiority, 
and render him homage, fanned the flame of re- 
sentment, already lighted, into increased inten- 
sity. " They hated him yet the more for his 
dreams," and deliberately purposed revenge. 

It was customary in those days for persons 
engaged in the occupation of shepherds to move 
from place to place with their flocks, in order to 
furnish them with pasturage ; and Jacob's sons 
having absented themselves from their father's 



JOSEPH. 113 

dwelling on this errand for a longer period than 
usual, and their father becoming anxious with 
reference to them, Joseph, now seventeen years 
of age, was dispatched by him to go after them, 
and inquire after their welfare. " Go, I pray 
thee," said he, "see whether it be well with thy 
brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me 
word again." Joseph accordingly set forth; went 
first to Shechem, where he had reason to think 
they would be found ; and not finding them there, 
and being told by an individual who observed 
him roaming the fields in search of them, that 
they had gone northward to Dotham, directed his 
course thither. As he moved on w^ith elastic 
step — not the verdant hills and sloping vales 
spread out before his vision, nor the music of 
birds, nor the fragrant air which floated around 
him, charged with the aromas which rose from 
flowers and fruits to regale his senses — not all 
these could utterly free his bosom from dis- 
quietude, * for he shared his venerable parent's 
solicitude for the safety and happiness of his 
brethren, towards whom, notwithstanding their 
jealousy of him, his heart throbbed with no 
emotions but those of fraternal love. 



114 JOSEPH. 

At length, he comes within sight of their 
encampment, and he quickens his pace, happy 
to have found them, and to be able to be the 
bearer to them of pleasant tidings from their 
father. But with what different feelings did 
they descry him! No sooner did he emerge 
into view — no sooner was his youthful form 
recognized, attired in that well-known man} r - 
colored garment, than they forgot that he was 
their brother, and regarded him only as an alien 
and an enemy. All their former feelings of envy 
and hostility glowed afresh ; evil thoughts rushed 
into their minds in crowds ; electric currents of 
malignant passion flashed from eye to eye, and 
they exclaimed — not, "Behold our brother!" but, 
" Behold this dreamer cometh I" They immedi- 
ately plot against his life — a barbarous and san- 
guinary design was instantly formed to murder 
him ! "Let us slay him," are their cruel words, 
"and cast him into some pit, and we will say 
some evil beast hath devoured him, and we will 
see what will become of his dreams." " We will 
see what will become of his dreams !" As if 
they could prove that adorable One false, who 



JOSEPH. 115 

prophetically intimated to Joseph his preemi- 
nence, in the night season; as if they could 
thwart the counsels of Him who " seeth the end 
from the beginning !" as if they could defeat the 
purposes of Omnipotence! No. Easier chain 
the swelling tides of the ocean, or arrest the orb 
of day triumphing in his pathway through the 
heavens ! The project, however, to murder him, 
one of his brothers (Reuben) dissented from. 
"Shed no blood," said Reuben, "only cast him 
into the pit;" intending, as it would appear, to 
extricate him, and return him to his father again. 
To this proposition they agreed. And now Jo- 
seph approaches ; and ere he can make known 
the object of his coining, or even salute them, 
they pounce upon him like wolves upon a lamb, 
and hurry him away. In vain did he plead for 
his life ; in vain did he assert his innocence of 
any design or wish ever to harm them or domi- 
neer over them ; in vain did he plead for his own 
sake, and for his father's sake, and for their sake, 
that he might not die a death so lingering, so 
horrible; in vain did his tears flow. They were 
inexorable. Deaf and blind to his pathetic en- 



11G JOSEPH. 

treaties, supplications and tears, they tore from 
him his variegated robe, heaped insults upon 
him, and threw him into the pit. Then, with 
reckless indifference, they sat down to their daily 
repast. One would suppose that his piteous cries, 
sounding in their ears, would have taken from 
them all appetite for food. But they sit around 
their rustic board, exult in what they have done, 
and encourage each other in their sin. While 
there, God in his providence brings that mercy 
to Joseph which he had vainly sought to obtain 
from his brethren ; for He so orders it, that just 
at that juncture a caravan approaches — a com- 
pany of Ishmaelites from Gilead, bound, with 
their camels laden with spicery, and balm, and 
myrrh, for the much-frequented mart, Egypt ; 
and He suggests it to Judah, that it would be far 
better to dispose of Joseph to these Arabian mer- 
chants, than to abandon him in the pit to perish. 
Judah receives the suggestion ; it strikes him 
favorably, and he utters it aloud. " What profit 
is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his 
blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ish- 
maelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for 



JOSEPH. 117 

he is our brother, our flesh; and his brethren 
were content." Eeuben was not present ; but 
there are nine without him ; and thej hail the 
merchants, who halt, and Joseph is drawn up 
from the pit, and presented before them. They 
mark his symmetrical form just, swelling into 
manhood ; his finely moulded oval face, his in- 
telligent features, his mild eye, expressive, though 
shaded with sadness, and they have no doubt that 
purchasing him, they can sell him again advan- 
tageously. They buy him, therefore, for twenty 
pieces of silver, and he goes a bond-slave to 
Egypt ! Oh, how much more would Jacob, igno- 
rant of all tikis — Jacob in Hebron, bending under 
the weight of age, and anxiously looking for his 
son's return with messages from his brethren — 
how much more he would have given for his dar- 
ling Joseph ! But on no Joseph is he to feast 
his eyes for many a long year. The money has 
changed hands, and the child of his old age, the 
dutiful and affectionate son, is the property of 
heartless traffickers ! 

Keuben, we have observed, was absent when 
it was decided that Joseph should be sold. He 
6* 



118 JOSEPH. 

expected, therefore, on his return to find Joseph 
still in the pit, and to rescue him ; and on being 
disappointed, gave vent to emotions of grief. On 
being informed, however, of what had been done, 
he seems to have acquiesced in the iniquity, and 
the brothers unitedly agreed to deceive their 
father relative to the fate of Joseph, and make 
him think he had been torn in pieces by some 
wild beast, by killing a kid, and dipping the 
party-colored garment in the blood, and bringing 
it to him. The cruel artifice succeeded. When 
the tattered coat was brought to him, soaked in 
blood, and he was told that they had so found it, 
and was asked whether it was his so%'s coat, he 
at once recognized it as the very same which had 
covered the body of his favorite child, and ex- 
claimed: "It is Joseph my son's coat! Some 
ferocious beast hath devoured him. Joseph is, 
without doubt, rent in pieces." And then rend- 
ing his own clothes, significant of his agony, he 
refused, so poignant was his distress, to be com- 
forted, and said : "I will go down into the grave 
unto my son mourning." 

Oh, wicked children ! to be such thorns in a 



JOSEPH. 119 

parent's soul ! Oh, malignant envy ! which could 
convert brethren into such monsters — " implaca- 
ble, unmerciful !" Reader, if envy throbs in thy 
heart, expel it now. Make no delay, for thou 
knowest not to what outrages that evil spirit 
with which thou art possessed may drive thee ! 

Joseph, torn from a fond parent's arms, — ba- 
nished from the cherished scenes of his child- 
hood, — "sorely grieved, shot at, and hated by 
the archers," on his arrival in Egypt, was pur- 
chased of the Ishmaelites by Potiphar, the cap- 
tain of Pharaoh's guard. Here the good instruc- 
tion which he had received from a pious parent's 
lips, and the sound religious principles which 
had been implanted in his heart, exhibited them- 
selves, and proved profitable. Confiding in Je- 
hovah, under the genial wing of whose provi- 
dence he was sheltered and nourished, drawing- 
wisdom from the great central source of all wis- 
dom, and acting in accordance with truth, and 
the dictates of an enlightened conscience, he 
showed himself to be an individual who could 
be trusted, and though a slave, had committed 
to his care everything pertaining to his master. 



120 JOSEPH. 

Under his administration, too, every branch of 
his master's business went on prosperously, for 
"the Lord blessed the house of Potiphar for 
Joseph's sake." He was not, however, exempted 
from trial. Kemarkable for his personal beauty 
and noble carriage, he was tempted by the wife 
of Potiphar to violate that purity and virtue so 
commendable, — which sheds such a charm over 
society, and the opposite of which " hardens all 
within, and petrifies the feeling" — enfeebles and 
prostrates the delicate sensibilities of the soul ; 
and, being invulnerable to her attacks, rising 
superior to her seductive arts, was maliciously 
accused by her, and cast into the state-prison. 
But he whose character was so high, and his 
conduct so praiseworthy — he whom importunate 
and repeated solicitations could not corrupt — who 
had rather incur the anger of a woman who for- 
got her sex, her modesty, and her duty, than to 
abuse the confidence which his master had re- 
posed in him, and go counter to the law of his 
God — was not without resources of comfort in 
the prison, for a supporting consciousness of his 
innocence and integrity was with him there, and 



JOSEPH. 121 

the Lord was with, him there. " The Lord," we 
are told, "was with Joseph in the prison;" and 
when told this we are told much. Let Him, 
"the God of all grace and consolation," visit and 
abide with a soul, and He makes radiant with 
beauty the darkest dungeon, and light and easy 
the heaviest and most galling fetters. Sustained 
and cheered by Him, Paul and Silas caused the 
walls of their dungeon at Philippi to echo with 
their songs of praise ; and doubtless Joseph, con- 
fined in that Egyptian fortress, was far happier 
than others at large, surrounded with all which 
wealth and power can furnish. Well speaketh 
the poet : 

" "What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, 

The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy, 

Is Virtue's prize." 

Imprisoned with him were two of the king's ser- 
vants — "the chief of the butlers," and "the 
chief of the bakers" — each one of whom had a 
dream, which Joseph interpreted correctly ; which 
fact after a time procured, on this wise, his restor- 
ation to the free air of day. Pharaoh, the sove- 
reign's name who ruled Egypt, having an extra- 



122 Joseph. 

ordinary dream which impressed and exercised 
him much, and none of the wise men and inter- 
preters of the land being able to explain it, the 
chief butler, then at liberty, was reminded of the 
gifted Hebrew who had satisfactorily explained 
his dream while in prison, and mentioned him 
favorably to Pharaoh. The consequence was, 
that Joseph was called into the king's presence. 
There, in the presence of royalty, he forgot not 
the God of Israel his father, nor neglected to 
acknowledge his dependence upon him ; and on 
being addressed by the monarch as one who was 
endowed with the ability of interpreting pro- 
phetic dreams, replied, "It is not in me; God 
shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." The 
dream was then related ; and the interpretation, 
as given by Joseph, being — that seven years of 
plenty and seven years of famine were approach- 
ing, and he further recommending the appoint- 
ment by government of some discreet and wise 
man, who during the season of plenty should 
make provision for the season of scarcity ; Pha- 
raoh, by and with the advice of his ministers 
and counsellors, selected him to be that one, and 



JOSEPH. 123 

invested Mm with office and dignity second only 
to those possessed by Pharaoh himself. Kecog- 
nizing the wisdom of Joseph as of celestial 
origin and of priceless value, the king, address- 
ing him, said, " Thou shalt be over my house, 
and according unto thy word shall all my people 
be ruled ; only in the throne will I be greater 
than thou. See, I have set thee over all the 
land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring 
and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him 
in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain 
about his neck ; and he made him to ride in the 
second chariot which he had ; and they cried 
before him, Bow the knee. And Pharaoh 
said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without 
thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all 
the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Jo- 
seph's name Zaphnath-paaneah, (Savior of the 
world,) and he gave him to wife Asenath, the 
daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. And Joseph 
went out over all the land of Egypt." Thus he 
stepped from a prison to a palace — from the de- 
graded condition of a slave, to a dignity inferior 
only to that of a king. An appropriate reward 



124 JOSEPH. 

for his fidelity, chastity, and piety. Never was 
honor more justly conferred — never did laurels 
deck a worthier brow ! 

Though persons suddenly raised from a hum- 
ble position to a lofty one, are not unfrequently 
intoxicated with pride, or their temper and de- 
portment changed for the worse, it was not so 
with Joseph, who appeared the same in disposi- 
tion in his new sphere as he had been in his for- 
mer one. As prime minister he was vigilant, 
prudent, and righteous, looked after the public 
interests, and during the season of plenty, which, 
agreeably to his prediction, arrived, laid up a 
copious supply for future want. At length the 
famine came, and not limited to Egypt, but felt 
in the countries contiguous, extended to the 
land where Joseph's father and brethren dwelt. 
Pinched for the necessaries of life, and receiving 
intelligence that there was abundance of food in 
Egypt, Jacob determined to send his sons thither 
to buy corn. All accordingly, with the excep- 
tion of the youngest, Benjamin, went to the 
court of Pharaoh on this errand. It was indis- 
pensable that they should appear before Joseph, 



JOSEPH. 125 

for from liim, as superintendent of the public 
granaries, the license to purchase could alone be 
obtained. Admitted, therefore, to an audience 
with him, it never occurred to them that the 
illustrious Zaphnath-paaneah, lord of Egypt, in 
whose august presence they stood, was the 
afflicted and injured youth whom, two and 
twenty years before, they had trampled upon, 
and shut from his soul every gleam of earthly 
hope by selling him in bondage to Ishmaelites ; 
it never occurred to them that this prime minis- 
ter, clothed in vestures of fine linen, with a 
golden chain about his neck, the object of affec- 
tion and reverence of a mighty nation, was that 
poor captive ; and they bowed down before him 
on their faces to the earth ! Then was brought 
to pass that preeminence foreshadowed in the 
dream, of " his sheaf arising and standing erect, 
while the sheaves of his brethren stood around 
and made obeisance to his sheaf." While, how- 
ever, they knew not him, he knew them ; and 
that a good opportunity might be afforded him 
of becoming acquainted with their present views 
and feelings, he judged it best for a time to keep 



126 JOSEPH. 

them in this ignorance. He accordingly assumed 
a moroseness of aspect and roughness of lan- 
guage, and reproached them with coming into 
Egypt as spies ; which behavior of his elicited 
from them the desired information, that Jacob 
and Benjamin were still living. That he might 
farther learn the strength of their attachment to 
their father and brother, he told them they might 
go to Canaan, on condition that they should 
return with Benjamin, leaving behind them 
bound in Egypt one of their number as a pledge 
of this. As they demurred to the proposition, 
he imprisoned them three days ; and then it was, 
that when thus shut away from the world, and 
involved in perplexity and distress, they thought 
of the past; and their barbarous treatment of 
Joseph, with his convulsive frame, earnest en- 
treaties, and streaming eyes, rose vividly before 
them. Full confession of their inhumanity in 
steeling their hearts against his piteous plea, was 
wrung from their burdened breasts, and they 
said, "We are verily guilty concerning our bro- 
ther, in that we saw the anguish of his soul 
when he besought us, and we would not hear ; 



JOSEPH. 127 

therefore is this distress come upon us." And 
then Reuben, who had not been in the plot, and 
whose plans of mercy had been thwarted in the 
outrageous procedure, reminded them of the 
opposition he at the time made to their wicked- 
ness. " Spake I not unto you, Do not sin against 
the child, and ye would not hear ? Therefore 
behold his blood is required." Striking example 
of the power of conscience! — conscience, whom 
no man ever yet offended, but sooner or later he 
suffered for it. 

" For from the body of a single deed 
Do ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed." 

How must Joseph have been affected as he heard 
such language from such lips ! — for he under- 
stood the Hebrew tongue in which they spake, 
though they supposed him ignorant of it. * No 
wonder that he was overcome, and turned aside 
and wept ! They consent at length to the pro- 
posal made by Joseph, to leave their brother 
Simeon in custody, and go home with supplies 
of food, and prove the truth of their declaration, 
that "they were the sons of one man in the land 
of Canaan, and had a younger brother," by re- 



128 JOSEPH. 

turning with Benjamin. Reaching home, they 
informed their father of all that had occurred. 
And how deeply interested Joseph was for the 
family, how filial and paternal affection pervaded 
his bosom, notwithstanding his forced sternness 
of look and severity of language, is apparent, 
not only from his secret tears which he could not 
control, but likewise from their own account 
which they gave of the interview to their father, 
when they would prevail upon him to allow Ben- 
jamin, agreeable to the prescribed terms, to attend 
them to Egypt. " The man, the lord of the land, 
asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, 
saying, Is your father yet alive ? have ye another 
brother ? and we told him according to the tenor 
of these words." Hard was it for Jacob to give 
permission to take Benjamin. He remembered 
Joseph going out, and never coming back ; and 
should a like fate befall Benjamin, it would be 
more, he thought, than he could endure, — such 
a calamity would " bring down his gray hairs 
with sorrow to the grave." Pathetic, touching 
to every spring of sensibility, were the expos- 
tulatory words of the venerable old man to 



JOSEPH. 129 

Judali: "Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as 
to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother ?" 
But to his consent to let Benjamin go, there was 
no alternative but death. The famine was sore 
in the land, and Benjamin must accompany the 
others on the expedition, or they must all perish. 
Jacob therefore could not refuse; and with a 
heart bursting with grief, said, " If it must be so 
now, take your brother, and arise, go again unto 
the man; and Grod Almighty give you mercy 
before the man, that he may send away your 
other brother and Benjamin : if I be bereaved 
of my children, I am bereaved" And the sons, 
with the best fruits of Canaan in their vessels, 
with double money in their hands, and the bless- 
ing of their father invoked upon their heads, set 
forth on their way to Egypt. 

On arriving there, they were again presented 
to Joseph, who, observing Benjamin among them, 
and perceiving that they had complied with his 
orders, received them graciously, and told his 
steward to take them to his house and make 
ready a dinner, as they must dine with him at 
noon. The steward did as he was directed, pre- 



130 JOSEPH. 

pared the entertainment, and Joseph, the busi- 
ness of the morning being over, went to his 
dwelling. No sooner had he entered it than 
they met him with "the balm, myrrh, spices, 
and almonds," which they had brought as a pre- 
sent to the governor of Egypt, and as they had 
done before, " the pregnant hinges of their knees 
were bent," and they prostrated themselves 
before him. As in their former interview they 
had mentioned their father, it gave Joseph a fair 
opportunity, without awakening suspicion, to 
inquire about one whom he so ardently loved, 
and concerning whose welfare we was so solicit- 
ous to hear. He, therefore, courteously put the 
question, " Is your father well ? the old man of 
whom ye spake, is he yet alive?" And rejoiced 
was he to receive for answer, " Thy servant our 
father is in good health : he is yet alive." The 
eye of Joseph then resting on Benjamin, his 
own mother's son, he asks again, "Is this your 
younger brother of whom ye spake unto me ?" 
And on their replying in the affirmative, could 
just so far control his bursting heart as to say, 
" God be gracious unto thee, my son," when he 



JOSEPH. 131 

was forced hastily to quit them, and repair to his 
chamber to weep. His self-possession restored, 
and his face washed, that they might not discern 
marks of the tears, he reenters and sits down to 
the furnished table. Not yet, however, does he 
act other than under disguise. He restores 
Simeon, and sends them homewards with a 
fresh supply of food, privately causes his silver 
cup to be put into Benjamin's sack of corn, and 
then dispatches a messenger after them charging 
them with the theft. The cup is searched for 
and found, and Benjamin is declared the guilty 
one. This artifice was resorted to by Joseph, 
not wantonly to grieve them, but to test the 
strength of their affection for Benjamin, and to 
discover whether he was envied as he himself 
had been by his brethren, or truly loved. And 
when he ascertained that their regard for him 
and for their father was sincere, all his purposes 
were accomplished, and his magnanimous heart 
desired no more. A change then took place in 
his conduct; and most impressive and melting 
was the scene. Commanding all his servants to 
withdraw, that the struggling emotions of his 



132 JOSEPH. 

soul might have free vent, he sobs, breaks out in 
a loud weeping, so loud that the Egyptians from 
without heard him, and cries, "I am Joseph! 
Doth my father still live?" Not more 
astounded could his brethren have been had a 
thunderbolt dropped at their feet, or had he 
come up a sheeted corpse from the sepulchre! 
Words fled from them ; they were struck dumb ; 
" They could not answer him, for they were 
troubled at his presence." Observing their dis- 
may, he hastens to remove it; assures them of 
his forgiveness, and declares to them his love. 
"Come near unto me," saith he, — for they stood 
as it were petrified with fear, — " Come near me, 
I pray you. I am Joseph your brother, whom 
ye sold into Egypt. Be not grieved nor angry 
with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God 
did send me before you to preserve life. So it 
was not you that sent me hither, but God, and 
he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord 
of all his house, and ruler throughout all the 
land of Egypt." Thus he traced up all that 
had occurred to an overruling Providence, the 
wonder-working machinery of God, and poured 



JOSEPH. 133 

balm into their wounded hearts! He then "fell 
upon Benjamin's neck and kissed him, and Ben- 
jamin fell upon his neck;" and by this time, his 
brethren being sufficiently composed to speak, 
they talked together. It having become noised 
abroad that Joseph's brethren had arrived, the 
intelligence was gratifying to Pharaoh and his 
court, who welcomed them to the land of Egypt, 
and would have their venerable father trans- 
ferred there also. Joseph still more ardently 
desired this, and sent his brethren up with 
wagons to bring him, his household and effects, 
down. The old man in the vale of Hebron 
could not at first believe that God had made his 
favorite son lord of all Egypt; "the news," he 
thought, was "too good to be true;" but when 
he actually saw the wagons sent to bring him, 
and the corn and meat provided for his subsist- 
ence by the way, his incredulity vanished, and 
joy flooded his soul. " It is enough," he raptu- 
rously exclaimed, "it is enough; Joseph my son 
is yet alive : I will go down and see him before 
I die." Delaying only on the way to perform 
in the true spirit of piety certain religious acts — 
7 



134 JOSEPH. 

to " offer sacrifices at Beersheba to tlie God of 
Isaac," his covenant God, — lie hastens to Egypt, 
and is met by Joseph in his chariot, with open 
arms and an open heart. Tender was the inter- 
view between them. He fell upon his venerable 
parent's neck and wept long. Both wept ; they 
were tears of joy and gratitude. In the best of 
the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, he 
located him and his brethren, Jacob forgetting 
all his vicissitudes and distresses in the comforts 
thus generously provided for him. As the last 
sands of his mortal existence were running < >ut, 
he commended the offspring of Joseph, Ephraim 
and Manasseh, to the blessing of Heaven ; and 
his unconscious clay, agreeably to his dying 
charge, was deposited by Joseph in the cave of 
Machpelah, with the garnered dust of his ances- 
tors. The years of Joseph were one hundred 
and ten, when his pure and gentle spirit fled to 
the bosom of that Saviour of whom he was a dis- 
tinguished type, and to that heaven where the 
righteous are congregated, and where they 
"shine forth as the sun" for ever. 
Contemplated as a Boy, lie was a noble boy, 



JOSEPH. 185 

"remembering his Creator in the clays of his 
youth;" and though exposed to corruption from 
the evil conversation and example of his breth- 
ren, he kept himself free and unspotted from their 
vices. 

Contemplated as a Son, he was filial and 
obedient. Regarded with peculiar affection by a 
fond parent, he proved himself worthy of such 
affection, by tenderly respecting his father's feel- 
ings, anticipating his wishes, and cheerfully 
obeying his every precept. 

Contemplated as a Statesman, he was sagaci- 
ous, prudent, and faithful, far-reaching in his 
plans, and energetic in carrying them out ; and, 
considering new honors as conferring new obli- 
gations, gave his undivided powers to the promo- 
tion of the vast interests intrusted to his care. 

Contemplated as a Christian, who is "the 
highest style of man," he was conscientious and 
devoted, adhering to the God of his fathers in 
the midst of idolatry, and remaining inflexibly 
firm to truth and duty in the face of opposing 
influences, by which others, less deeply rooted 
and grounded in the faith and experience of spi- 



136 JOSEPH. 

ritual religion, would have been dislodged from 
their principles and borne away. 

We have remarked that Joseph was A rvri; 
of Christ. Nor is it difficult to make good the 
declaration. 

Was Joseph hated by his brethren because lie 
testified against their wickedness? Christ was 
hated by the world, because " he testified of it 
that the works thereof were evil." 

Was Joseph's greatness foreshadowed by 
dreams? Christ's superiority and glory was 
predicted by prophets. 

Was Joseph stripped of his coat of many 
colors and insulted ? Christ's clothes were taken 
from him, "lots cast upon his vesture,'' and 
indignities heaped upon him. 

Was Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty 
pieces of silver ? Add ten pieces more to these, 
and make thirty, and you have the sum for 
which Jesus was sold to the Jews. 

Was Joseph sharply tempted by the wife of 
Potiphar, and did he overcome the temptation ? 
Christ was violently assaulted by Satan in the 
wilderness, and proved invulnerable to his 
attacks. 



JOSEPH. 137 

Did Joseph's road to future advancement lie 
through a prison ? Did he pass from a dungeon 
to a palace? So Christ passed from the igno- 
minious cross, and rose from the humiliating 
grave to the throne of Majesty in the heavens. 

Did Joseph's brethren, like the sheaves in the 
vision, bow down their heads and make obeis- 
ance to him? Dicl even his venerable father 
acknowledge his preeminence? Thus "at the 
name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every 
tongue confess that He is Lord." 

In the time of scarcity and want, did Joseph 
throw open the well-stored granaries, and did the 
famished multitude go thither and obtain sup- 
plies of food ? So there is treasured up in Christ 
all which the needy, guilty, perishing children 
of men need for time and eternity, and these 
blessings He bestows freely. May my readers 
go to Him and feed upon Him, for " His flesh is 
meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed :" 
and " by faith in Him," says the inspired author 
of the epistle to the Hebrews, "Joseph died." 
"Trust ye in His mercy, and your hearts shall 
rejoice in his salvation." 



XL 
JOB. 

We have heard of a free-thinker who, with an 
incredulous look and tone, once asked a clergy- 
man, "if he really believed that there ever was 
such a man as Job?" The clergyman said 
nothing, but coolly taking out his pocket Bible, 
read, in a distinct voice : "There vjas a man in 
the land of Uz, whose name ivas Job. 11 Upon this 
the free-thinker, after a moment's delay, replied, 
"Well, I don't know but there was such a man, 
after all." To this the clergyman rejoined, 
"Nor I either." They separated; nothing more 
was said ; and thus terminated what was meant 
to be, by one of the parties at least, a long and 
sharp debate. 

There was such an individual as Job. Of this 
we have as much evidence as that there were 
such characters as Noah and Daniel; for he is 
represented with them as an example of piety by 

(13S) 



job. 139 

the prophet Ezekiel, (Ezek. xiv. 14-20.) and is 
referred to as a real personage by the apostle 
James, (James v. 11.) We cannot surety fix the 
period when he lived, though we think it must 
be assigned to an age not far remote from the 
age of Moses. The book which bears his name 
is generally admitted by those who have ex- 
amined the subject, to be exceeded in antiquity 
only by the Pentateuch. It is mostly written in 
the highest style of Hebrew poetry,— as an epic 
poem, has merits surpassing either the Iliad or 
the Odyssey, — and cannot be read by any indi- 
vidual of emotion or taste without admiration 
and profit. 

This patriarch, in the land of Uz, is first pre- 
sented to us sitting in peace and prosperity under 
his vine and fig tree. Jehovah had smiled upon 
him: riches had been poured into his lap, until 
he had become the wealthiest of all the men of 
the East ; he had been raised to an elevated and 
influential civil station; was an Emir; and 
seven sons and three daughters, spared to grow 
up and become settled in life, were located near 
him, bound to each other and to him by ties of 



140 job. 

warmest affection. Nor was he unmindful of the 
Divine hand which had conferred upon him such 
comforts. He traced up these streams of bounty 
to their fountain-head in the skies; and while a 
grateful partaker of the gifts of God, was a faith- 
ful, generous minister of them, as his steward, to 
the suffering and the destitute. While he made 
not " gold his hope, nor fine gold his confidence," 
but found his supreme portion and delight in the 
perfections of his Creator; was clothed with 
righteousness, and had judgment to him as a 
robe and a diadem, he Avas "eyes to the blind, 
feet to the lame, a father to the poor," and a 
benefactor to the widow, whose "heart," because 
of his beneficence, "often sang for joy." O how 
much good can one blessed with possessions do 
with them, if, instead of hoarding and making 
them his idol, he is "ready to distribute, and will- 
ing to communicate," for purposes of benevo- 
lence! As Shakspeare says of the "quality of 
mercy," beneficence 

11 droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath ; it is twice blessed : 
It blesses him that gives and him that takes." 



JOB. 141 

Besides adding to the happiness of those over 
whom he pours the expressions of his own kind 
heart, he resembles and is approved by that 
Being whose "tender mercies are over all his 
works," who pours vials of joy into the hearts 
of his subjects, and who "loveth a cheerful 
giver !" 

Job, thus surrounded with felicity, " a guile- 
less and upright man, fearing God and eschew- 
ing evil," could hardly fail of being an object of 
envy and enmity to Satan, that adversary of the 
happy and the good, who accused him with 
being, in his principles, professions, and acts, 
mercenary, selfish, and insincere. Jehovah, to 
show the falsehood and maliciousness of this alle- 
gation, and to test the integrity of his servant, — 
for it is in the battle and the storm that the gal- 
lantry and worth of the soldier and the mariner 
are tried, — and designing, too, to overrule, for the 
benefit of Job, Satan's malignant assaults, per- 
mitted him for a season to try this pious man 
by calamities. 

The picture is now reversed, and we behold 
the patriarch given into the power of the Prince 
7* 



142 job. 

of Evil, a severe sufferer. The blue curtain of 
the sky above him becomes dark, black with 
clouds and tempest, for a smiling God has given 
place to a scowling devil ! Suddenly his pro- 
perty departs, and he becomes poor ; for robbers 
and the blazing thunderbolt plunder and con- 
sume his substance. Suddenly his offspring, 
around whom his affections are entwined, by 
one fell stroke are crushed in death; and thus 
he who yesterday was opulent and the father of 
an affectionate family of children, is to-day 
needy and childless ! 

But what is the effect upon him ? Is it such 
as Satan hoped, and declared that it would be ? 
Was his religion proved to be mercenary, the 
result of reward or mere necessity? Did he 
love God simply because God had conferred 
upon him many gifts ? and now that those gifts 
were removed, did his religion depart with them, 
and he become rebellious and profane? No. 
Though the blows came so unexpectedly — 
though they came so hard and were so desolat- 
ing — though they followed each other in such 
quick succession as gave the goo3 man's energies 



job. 148 

no time to rally from one stroke, till lie was 
smitten again, and more grievously than before, 
he yet trusted in God, and was patient and sub- 
missive. "He arose and rent his mantle, and 
shaved his head," — the modes in which grief in 
those ages was manifested ; " and he fell down 
upon the ground and worshipped, and said, 
* Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and 
naked shall I return thither : the Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name 
of the Lord.' " Beautiful language, expressive 
of the sincerest piety! His sore calamities, in- 
stead" of driving him from God, drove him to 
God ; instead of eradicating the principle of grace 
in his soul, rooted it more firmly, and exhibited 
it as existing in great vigor ; for though flock- 
less, childless, a beggar and a wreck, amidst 
former scenes of elegance, luxury, and joy, the 
patriarch, seated at his tent door, as messenger 
after messenger comes with heavy tidings — tid- 
ings of spoil, conflagration, and destruction — 
sees in them the hand of the Lord, bows himself 
and acquiesces in his Maker's will ! What an 
example is hese for the mourner, whatever may 



144 job. 

have been his loss, whether he has been stripped 
of his honors, has had swept from him his pro- 
perty, or been called to consign the amiable and 
the beautiful to the grave! What had you, 
smitten one, till you came into the possession of 
it by the good providence of God ? and what He 
gave, what must be traced up to Ilim as the Au- 
thor and Proprietor, He has a right to remove 
when He pleases. So, when it is removed, not 
accident removes it, not hap-hazard, any more 
than it was chance, bad fortune, the Sabeans or 
the Chaldeans which bereaved Job, but that in- 
telligent and holy Sovereign who restrains what 
He will, and permits what He will — who " num- 
bers the very hairs of our head," in accordance 
with whose wise plans and intentions all things 
come to pass, and who " doeth all things well." 

Satan, however, is not satisfied yet. He next 
subjects Job to acute and protracted bodily suf- 
fering, covers him with painful and loathsome 
ulcers, with refined cruelty stirs up against him 
his familiar friends, who wound him with their 
suspicious and skilful criminations, and even 
uses his Avif' as a tempter, who. instead of utt.-r- 



job. 145 

ing words of condolence and affection, advises 
him to " curse God and die !" 

Strange, indeed, if in all this tremendous dis- 
cipline, in the midst of such multiplied and 
prolonged calamities, the terrors of the Lord in 
array against him, and His waves and billows 
rolling over him, no feelings of impatience were 
generated, and no language of murmuring escaped 
the sufferer. Only one model of pure submission 
has there been on earth, and that was the Lord 
Jesus Christ. But though Job's fallen nature 
was found too feeble to sustain these terrible 
shocks, without their making any unfavorable 
impression upon him, he, when reproved for 
these shortcomings of his by the Almighty, pen- 
itently confessed them, acknowledged and de- 
plored his weakness, and received from that Being 
who cannot err, testimonials of his sincerity. In 
awful grandeur, clouds piled on clouds, consti- 
tuting a throne, forth which issued a dazzling and 
overpowering light, — fit emblem of His majesty, 
. — did Jehovah appear ; and in opposition to the 
charges of Satan and the unfounded insinuations 
of Job's censors, triumphantly vindicate him. 



146 job. 

Indeed, so complete was their discomfiture — so 
unworthy were his friends pronounced when 
compared with him, that not until lie interceded 
with God in their behalf could they be forgiven 
for the wrong which they had done him by their 
reflections upon his integrity. 

Thus was the captivity of the patriarch of Uz 
effectually turned. The sky of ruin which had 
suddenly lowered over him was as suddenly 
swept clear of clouds, and the sun of prosperity 
beamed again warm and genial upon him and Ins. 
"Around him a golden shower descends in the 
form of troops of friends, bringing with them 
silver and gold ; sheep and oxen, as if springing 
from the earth, fill his pastures ; new sons and 
daughters are born to him ; the broad tree over 
his tent again blooms and blossoms, and seated 
under its shadow," a recipient of blessings so 
many and precious, he lives one hundred and 
forty years, probably twice the length of time 
which he had spent upon the earth before his 
afflictions. 

In conclusion, let those who are wont to infer 
that sudden and overwhelming calamities 



job. 147 

proofs of corresponding guilt, look at the sage of 
Uz, and correct their mistake, for this is not a 
settled principle of the divine government. 

As the prosperous behold this distinguished 
patriarch, let them be, like him, fellow- workers 
with the Giver of all grace. 

As those in adversity behold him, let them not 
despair, nor in the mysteries of the divine deal- 
ings be unsubmissive. 

Let those who say that there is no difference 
between the pious and others, note his patience 
and resignation. For as the Koh-i-noor diamond, 
in the Crystal Palace at London, was exhibited 
encompassed with brilliant gas, that the brighter 
brilliancy of the gem might prove its genuine- 
ness and peerless worth, so does piety ray out in 
trying circumstances, and reveal by its lustre its 
manifest superiority. 

And let each reader, as he " hears of the 
patience of Job, and of the end of the Lord," 
imitate the sage, and trust in the Divinity as good 
and true, 

" One part, one little part, we dimly scan. 

Through the dark medium of lifo's feverish dream, 



148 JOB. 

Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan, 
If but that little part incongruous seem, 

Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem ; 
Oft from apparent ills our blessings rise — 

! then renounce that impious self-esteem 
That aims to trace the secrets of the skies ; 

For thou art but of dust — be humble and be wise." 

Beattie. 



XII. 
MOSES. 

Some one has remarked, that if a general con- 
vention were held of men of science, gathered 
from all parts of the civilized globe, they would, 
by acclamation, elect Sir Isaac Newton for their 
president. So we may say relative to the next 
personage in our gallery of portraits — the great 
Jewish lawgiver and leader, Moses — that if the 
suffrages of the Church universal were taken, as to 
which was the most splendid character on record, 
this station of preeminence would be assigned to 
him. Others had high intellectual qualities, but 
none his transcendent genius ; others made their 
mark upon their generation and -succeeding gener- 
ations, but none so enduring a mark as he made : 
others had their peculiar excellences, — "shine 
aloft like stars," along the tract of time, — but in 
him there was a angular assemblage of exc ■!- 

(149) 



150 M S E S . 

lences, as the seven primary colors constitute 
the mellow golden ray of the sun. 

This extraordinary man, of the race of Abra- 
ham, in the line of Levi the son of Jacob, was 
born in Egypt about sixteen hundred years before 
the Christian era. A short time previous to his 
birth, Pharaoh, the Egyptian monarch, had pub- 
lished a sanguinary edict, that all the male child- 
ren of the Israelites, — who were then his slaves, 
— should, as soon as born, be strangled, and 
thrown into the river. To evade the force of this 
barbarous decree and save their son, the parents 
of Moses — Amram and Joch ebed — con c ealed him 
three months. But when concealment in their 
own house was no longer possible, the mother 
formed a little ark or skiff of rushes and papyrus,* 
and placing her infant son in it, hid him among 
the sedges on the banks of the Nile. While the 
feeble babe was thus exposed, Thcrmutis, the 
daughter of Pharaoh, came down t<> the live]- for 
the purpose of bathing. "She spied the ark 



* Light boats of osiers, bound with papyrus, wore common 
among the Egyptians. — Tlll/dtisoiu vol. iii., pp. 18"), 18G. 



MOSES. 151 

among the flags, and sent her maid to fetch it ; 
and when she opened it, she saw the child, and 
behold, the babe wept." The tears of suffering 
infancy spoke eloquently to her heart. Though 
she saw and declared that he was " one of the 
Hebrew children," she could not be his bloody 
executioner, nor would she allow the merciless 
agents of her father to tear him from her arms, 
and consign him to a watery tomb. On the con- 
trary, struck by his rare beauty, she made those 
arms a warm sanctuary for the helpless found- 
ling, and resolved to adopt him as her own. At 
this interesting and critical moment, Miriam his 
sister presented herself, and offered to procure a 
nurse for the child. The princess consented, and 
the happy girl flew to her mother. The mother 
came. "And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, - 
Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I 
will pay thee thy wages. And the woman took 
the child and nursed it. And the child grew, 
and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and 
he became her son. And she called his name 
Moses," (Hebrew, Moshee, u e., drawn from 
water.) A noble act, this of Thermutis, and it 



152 MOSES. 

has immortalized her. Though it would have 
been counter to woman's tender nature not to 
have been moved with pity at the spectacle of 
an outcast babe in so hazardous a situation, yet 
this concern of the princess for the boy, this 
taking of him to her bosom, though the offspring 
of a bondman, has embalmed her memory, and 
made it fragrant for ever. As an excellent 
writer observes,* " The Christian traveller wan- 
ders among the ruins of Egyptian greatness, and 
as he gazes upon the mysterious pyramids, or 
the serene face of the colossal Sphinx, wonders 
yet more at the forgetfulness which, like the 
sands over the cities where they reigned, lias 
covered the names and the story of those far-past 
dynasties ; but as he turns his step towards the 
river, and sees the bulrushes waving upon its 
brink, he thinks of her who walked there more 
than thirty-five centuries since, and saved from 
the waters a weeping child; and we, on this i'ar- 
west Atlantic shore, bless her memory for that 
one deed of kindness, which blooms fresh and 

* Bethune. 



MOSES. 153 

odorous in the garden of the Lord, while the war- 
like fame of Sesostris is wrapped about, like a 
shrivelled mummy, in doubtful hieroglyphics." 
Eeader, " take heed that ye despise not one of 
these little ones." That orphan boy or girl, ex- 
posed to the sensual, the rapacious, or the brutal 
— the crocodiles of temptation and sin — may, 
rescued by you, cherished and trained by you, 
become an ornament to society, a pillar in Zion, 
and a splendid monument of your mercy. 

Moses, claimed by the princess, was educated 
under all the facilities for mental discipline and 
furniture to be found at the fountain-head of 
learning in the ancient world. According to 
Clemens Alexandrinus, the most eminent Egyp- 
tian instructors took him under their charge ; and, 
according to Philo, masters came from Greece 
and Assyria, to familiarize him with the arts, 
sciences, and literature of their respective nations. 
AVe have the inspired authority of the martyr 
Stephen for saying " that he was learned in all 
the wisdom of the Egyptians." 

Previous, however, to coming under their 
tutoring, he was doubtless taught by his mother. 



154 MOSES. 

She had possession of his mind first, and instilled 
into it the principles of true religion. As she 
told him of their one only living and'true Grod, 
in distinction from the idolatry and superstiti< >ns 
of Egypt, — as she told him of their ancestors, the 
patriarch Abraham, and the promise made to him 
and his descendants — as she told him of the 
advancing Messiah, "the glory of his people 
Israel," and the Eedeemer of the world, unques- 
tionably the bosom of maternal affection yearned 
over her son, and the prayer of faith was offered 
that he might be a faithful servant of this God, a 
worthy descendant of so holy a predecessor, and 
a devout friend of the anticipated Shiloh. The 
effect of her pious solicitude, judicious counsel, 
and fervent prayers, was as might be expected. 
She who has put into her hands a plastic soul, 
and essays, looking for direction and help to the 
Divine Spirit, to cast that soul into the mould of 
heavenly truth, and draw upon it the bright 
lineaments of holiness, will not labor in vain. 
The expanding mind will be illumined with ce- 
lestial light, and the deathless spirit made 
for the mansions of the blessed. There is do 



MOSES. 155 

loftier vocation than the mother's. There is none 
to which Jehovah more uniformly sets the seal 
of success. There is none to which is connected 
more decisive or more stupendous issues. Mother 
of that little bud — the germ of a seraph's bliss or 
a devil's woe — how exalted your ministry ! how 
responsible your duty ! "What achievement is 
so great, what honor so high, as to educe from 
that bud the pleasant flower and the precious 
fruit, and cause it to thrive with rich luxu- 
riance and eternal beauty in the paradise of God ! 
Moses, thus trained — the first outgoings of his 
life thus watched and nurtured — on coming to 
the years of maturity, " refused to be called the 
son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to 
suffer affliction with the people of God, than to 
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt ; for he had respect unto the 
recompense of the reward." Josephus tells us 
that when the youthful Moses was presented by 
the princess to her father, as her adopted son, 
and heir to the throne, and the royal crown \\ afl 
put upon his head, he refused to wear it, and 



156 MOSES. 

cast it from him and trod upon it. Certain it is, 
that he never forgot his mother's instructions, n< >r 
ceased, under those moral stimulants which she 
had applied in the morning of his being, to under- 
value empty honors, forego the pleasures of the 
imperial court of Pharaoh, and cast in his lot 
with God's people. 

With this people were his sympathies, though 
he was rich and they poor, he high in royal 
favor and they in cruel bondage. Hence, going 
out on a certain occasion, for the express par- 
pose of observing their condition under their 
exacting task-masters, and beholding one of his 
enslaved countrymen inhumanly beaten by a bru- 
tal Egyptian, his love of freedom and keen sense 
of wrong were in the ascendant ; and rising upon 
the oppressor, — for " surely oppression maketh a 
wise man mad," — he slew him and concealed the 
body in the sand. The day following he found, 
to his mortification, two Hebrews quarrelling, and 
on being taunted, at his kind interference for the 
purpose of adjusting the difficulty between them, 
with having put the Egyptian to death, he deemed 
it prudent, ere that deed reached the ears of 



MOSES. 157 

Pharaoh, to fly ; and accordingly left the coast of 
Egypt, and took refuge in that part of Arabia 
denominated, from its mountainous or rocky 
aspect, Petrea. The old Jewish rabbis have 
recorded among their fables — for they have 
many, equally singular and ludicrous — that ere 
Moses could escape, he was arrested, charged 
with the crime and condemned, but that Jehovah 
gave such a preternatural hardness to his neck, 
that while the sword of the executioner could 
make no wound upon it, the rebounding weapon 
destroyed the executioner himself. 

The particular city to which Moses came was 
Midian, which lay on the eastern shore of the 
Red Sea ; and to Jethro, a priest or prince of the 
city, he engaged himself as shepherd or herdsman. 
Any employment, however humble, is, if honest, 
far preferable to idleness, which is alike incon- 
sistent with usefulness or comfort. Thus he who 
had been the adopted son and heir of Egypt's 
king, and a proficient in the schools of the East- 
ern Magi, considered it, and hence thought it no 
dishonor or mark of a grovelling spirit to be 
occupied as a keeper of flocks. Here, in Midian, 



158 MOSES. 

he pursued this unpretending occupation — here, 
discharged the duties and exemplified the virtues 
of the private citizen — here, won by his gallantry 
the heart and hand of the daughter of Raguel, or 
Jethro, (for he bears both names in the sacred 
volume;) and here, in this quiet retreat, as is 
commonly supposed, explored still farther those 
fields of knowledge for which his previous studies 
and mental discipline had signally qualified him ; 
and under the inspiration of the "Heavenly 
Muse," wrote so much of the Book of Genesis as 
is comprised from the creation of the world to his 
own times : 

" On the secret top 
Of Horeb, or of Sinai, first taught the chosen seed 
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth 
Rose out of chaos." Milton. 

In this shady retirement forty years of the life 
of Moses glided tranquilly away, at the expiration 
of which the season for efficient and memorable 
action arrived. As he grazed his flock among 
the verdant meadows found in the valleys 
and declivities of Sinai's mountains, a singular 



MOSES. 159 

phenomenon caught his attention and arrested 
his steps. It was that of a bush, from the midst 
of which shot up a brilliant flame, without con- 
suming it. On turning towards it his admiring 
eyes, he observed that the bush was vocal as 
Avell as bright, for from out of the blaze his own 
name was called, and he addressed by the un- 
created Angel of the Covenant — commanding him 
to put off his shoes from his feet, for he stood in 
the presence of the holy God. This burning 
bush was symbolical. It represented his afflicted 
countrymen, though encompased with the fires 
of persecution — down- trodden, and rendered serf- 
like by a cruel tyrant, yet glowing with a spirit 
which tyranny could not subdue; and was a 
striking emblem of the Church, which, though 
environed by dangers — though the world, the 
flesh, and the devil have marshalled against it 
their confederated powers — still lives, the raging 
flames " harmless as the light of the morning," 
because God is her everlasting defence ! 

At this manifestation, Moses, conscious of the 
distance, natural and moral, between himself and 
the Infinite, " hid his face," for he feared to look 



160 MOSES. 

upon the Divine Majesty ; but Jehovah sustained 
him by an assurance of His love — the very same 
with which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been 
blessed — commissioned him to go on the merciful 
errand of salvation to his enslaved brethren in 
Egypt, and furnished him with the requisite en- 
dowments to achieve the magnificent enterprise. 
"And God said unto Moses, I AM that I am : 
And thus shalt thou say unto the children of 
Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." AVith this 
proclamation of the name and nature of God, 
from the mouth of God himself, the constitutional 
diffidence of Moses was overcome, and his soul 
nerved with fresh energy ; and with a rod in his 
hand, which had been miraculously transformed 
into a serpent, and then back again into a rod, 
and joined by Aaron his brother, he appeared 
at the court of the reigning Pharaoh, and de- 
manded, as the Lord's prophet, the deliverance 
of his people -from the yoke of bondage. " Thus 
saith the Lord," was his language, " let my peo- 
ple go, that they may serve me:" to which the 
haughty monarch of Egypt impiously replied : 
" Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice 



MOSES. 161 

to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither 
will I let Israel go." He recognized no such 
Being as superior to himself in greatness, no such 
authority by which he was bound ; and not till 
the thunders of divine indignation had rolled 
along his guilty path, and a series of judgments 
had desolated his nation, and Isis, Osiris, Horus, 
Thoth, and all the reputed divinities of the realm, 
had been shown worthless, did he see the folly of 
contending with Omnipotence, and was induced 
to submit. At length, however, after ten differ- 
ent plagues from the throne of Grod had avenged 
the sorrows of the oppressed, the arrogant king 
was sufficiently humbled to consent to their liber- 
ation ; and the Hebrews, with their flocks, herds, 
and little ones, set forth with Moses at their head, 
and left the Egyptian frontier behind them. 

They went out, leaving behind them tears, 
lamentations, and corpses ; for the angel of 
death, entering cottage and palace, had smitten 
the first-born in every dwelling, and consigned 
to the dismal tomb sons and daughters of their 
taskmasters. 

But though the haughty king, awed by a se- 



162 MOSES. 

ries of prodigies, had relented, and allowed trie 
Hebrews to depart, he was still nn willing " to 
let the oppressed go free," and lose his slaves ; 
and accordingly determined to follow after and 
bring them back. He did so ; girded on his 
armor, gathered his forces, pursued the fugitives, 
and overtook them in a position which seemingly 
promised him success. Before them rolled the 
Eed Sea, and on each side high and impassable 
barriers enclosed them. But their great Deliverer 
had not brought His people thus far, then to 
leave them to the fury of their enemies. At His 
word, the wondrous rod of Moses was extended 
over the sea, whose waters were miraculously di- 
vided, and they marched on dry ground through 
the midst of the sea to the opposite shore. Pha- 
raoh and his disciplined hosts presumptuously 
following, the rod of Moses, extended again, 
brought back the flood, which "covered the 
chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pha- 
raoh, so that there remained not so much as one 
of them." This decisive victory over their 
enemies, emblematic of the final triumph of 
Christians over their spiritual adversaries, was 



MOSES. 163 

appropriately celebrated by a song of Moses, 
— the first triumphal song that was prepared and 
sung on earth, — in which the rough notes of 
manly, and the softer notes of female voices, 
blended in sweet accord with the harmony of the 
trump and timbrel, in praise of Him who had 
fought for Israel, and redeemed them from the 
power of the Egyptians. Happy they who sing 
that song which this song betokens, — " the song 
of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of 
the Lamb ;" who, clean escaped from the troubles 
of earth and the bondage of sin, shall, on " the 
starry plains," join in that anthem, rising loud 
from unnumbered hearts and voices, by which is 
commemorated the complete triumph of Zion, 
and the victory of the kingdom of God over all 
error and unrighteousness ! 

The Hebrews, thus rescued, and the pride of 
Egypt crushed — swallowed up by the waves — 
Moses took charge of them, and in connection 
with the " pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by 
night/' led them on their journey. When they 
were distressed for food, he fed them with quails 
and manna ; when they needed water, this gush- 



164: MOSES. 

ed pure and limpid at his bidding from the sterile 
rock ; when they reached Sinai, near which for 
about a year they lay encamped, he delivered to 
them a divinely prescribed code of laws, — the 
matchless decalogue, graven for their use by the 
ringer of the Almighty upon tables of stone ; and 
when neighboring tribes, singly, or in alliance 
with each other, made war against them, the He- 
brews conquered — for Jehovah was their patron 
Deity, and Moses, their commander, His servant. 

Manifold were the trials to which the ignorance 
and perverseness of his countrymen subjected 
Moses during their passage through the wilder- 
ness. On more than one occasion a violent re- 
bellion broke out against him, which he, by di- 
vine assistance, energetically suppressed. 

He was not, however, absolute proof against 
temptation — for the annals of mankind furnish 
no model of perfection but One — and foiling 
into sin, by speaking in a transport of passion, 
"inadvertently with his lips,' 1 was on this ac- 
count deprived of the privilege <>f introducing 
the people into Canaan. On reaching there i- >re 
its borders, he gathered them under the br«»ad 



MOSES. 165 

and open canopy of the skies, pronounced in 
their hearing his farewell discourse, devolved his 
trust on his already designated successor, Joshua, 
and then, repairing to the heights of Pisgah, a 
peak of the mountain range of Nebo, which 
overlooked the vine-clad hills and valleys of the 
promised land, took a survey of them from its 
summit, and then, vigorous in mind and body to 
the last, rested in death from his eventful labors. 
Jehovah dug his grave in a hollow of the hilly 
region where he died ; and since, if the spot had 
been known, the Hebrews might have perform- 
ed pilgrimages thither, and made his body an 
object of adoration, Jehovah, to prevent this, 
caused his burial to be secret, and to this day 
"no man knoweth the place of his sepulchre." 

" God dug his grave — to men unknown — 
Where Moab's rocks a vale enfold, 
And laid the aged seer alone 
To slumber while the world grows old. 

11 Though nameless, trampled, and forgot, - 

His servant's humble ashes lie, 

Yet God has marked and sealed the spot, 

To call its inmate to the sky.'' 

Bryant. 



166 MOSES. 

Yes, the grave may be unknown to man, but 
" God has marked and sealed it ;" and when, at 
the archangel's trump, the descending glorified 
spirit shall knock at its portals, and enter again 
the body, then changed from corruption to incor- 
ruption, — a convoy of angels will be there, to 
form a guard and escort for the celestial city ! 

The patriarch, the most prominent facts in 
whose history we have now contemplated, pos- 
sessed, as has been observed, all the elements of 
superiority. Others may have rivalled him in 
some particulars — perhaps surpassed him ; but 
when you gather those qualifications which con- 
stitute true greatness, you find more of them com- 
bined and dominant in Moses, than in any other 
mortal. 

He was & finished scholar. 

His was an intellect of the highest order, and 
admirably disciplined — capable of comprehend- 
ing the remote, exploring the unknown, and 
fathoming the profound — far-reaching in its 
views, vigorous in its action, and correct in its 
decisions. The advantages with which he was 
favored, he appreciated and improved, and made 



MOSES. 167 

all that knowledge tributary to the good of hu- 
manity and his Maker's glory — brought all his 
acquisitions — all the spoils which he had gather- 
ed in Egyptian schools of science — all the lau- 
rels with which successful scholarship had there 
crowned him, and laid them down at His feet, 
from whom minds and genius are emanations. 

He was a distinguished writer. 

A baptism richer than Castalian dews had wet 
his lips, and all his varied utterances and compo- 
sitions embody truths of priceless value. The 
Pentateuch is from his pen ; and, as the He- 
brews affirm, those psalms from the ninetieth to 
the hundredth. What a range of doctrine and 
narrative, of biography and poetry, is here ! 
What a treasury of wisdom ! The very first 
verse in the very first chapter of the book of 
Genesis, — u In the beginning God created the hea- 
vens and the earth" — this very first sentence over- 
turns all the systems of Pagan cosmogony ; and 
as Dr. Scott, the commentator, well remarks, 
"A child from this book, nay, from a single page 
of this book, may learn in one hour more than 
all the philosophers of the world learned with 
out it, in a thousand years." 



168 MOSES. 

He was a sterling patriot. 

He loved his nation, and was devoted to the 
furtherance of their best interests. Nothing — no 
distrust, no murmurings, no calumny, no abuse 
— could wean them from his affections. He 
" grappled them to his soul with hooks of steel." 
The government, also, under which he lived, he 
prized and cherished ; and what Solon was to 
Greece, the renowned Alfred to England, Gus- 
tavus Adolphus to Sweden, William Tell to 
Switzerland, and George Washington to Ame- 
rica, was Moses to the Hebrew Commonwealth. 

He was a consummate general. 

Though the people whom he led out of Egypt 
were scarcely elevated above the condition of 
serfs, — raw, craven, and restive, — such was his 
control over masses of men, such his military 
skill, such his prowess, that he formed of this 
tumultuous rabble a brave and united army, and 
in the face of an immensely superior enemy, won 
with them victory upon victory. 

He was an illustrious projrff t 

None of that long and bright succession "of 
h<>lv men, who swept the harp and rolled the 



MOSES. 169 

numbers down the tide of time," were more so. 
The twenty - eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, 
which he wrote, and in which, from his exalted 
watch-tower of prophecy, we "behold him looking 
down the vista of ages, and predicting the future 
condition of his nation, in an accurate represent- 
ation of the condition of this singular people in 
the nineteenth century ! Perhaps among his 
many inspired utterances, there is no one more 
remarkable than where he speaks of the advent 
of another prophet, after a lapse of years, like 
unto himself. His memorable words are, " The 
Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet 
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto 
me ; unto him shall ye hearken." That prophet 
was the Lord Jesus Christ ; and the superemi- 
nence of Moses as a prophet consisted in this, 
that he bore so striking a resemblance to God's 
only -begotten and dearly -beloved Son ! Other 
prophets were richly endowed, other prophets 
were rapt into an ecstatic transport, in which 
ideas were immediately imparted from heaven, 
and other prophets had clear and brilliant vi- 
sions; but it was the distinctive peculiarity, the 



170 MOSES. 

glory, of Moses, that no one so closely resembled 
Jesus, the Messiah, as he. " There arose not a 
prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the 
Lord knew face to face. 

He was a possessor of true religion. 

This was his crowning excellence. He reve- 
renced and loved that august Being under whose 
commission he acted, and in all the duties of pri- 
vate and of public life sought His direction and 
approbation. How meek he was — " clothed with 
humility !" How self-denying — renouncing the 
pomp of an imperial court, and scorning tempo- 
ral riches and pleasures ! How steadfast to his 
convictions of right in presence of the scoffer, 
the flatterer, and the threatening tyrant ! How 
exemplary the intercourse which he ever main- 
tained with his kindred, — with the wife of his 
bosom, his brother Aaron, and his sister Miriam ! 
And with what singleness of purpose, and with 
what constant effort, did he aim and strive to be 
the benefactor, not only of his own nation, but 
of the whole human family ! 
In the language of another :* " Every now and 

* Hamilton. 



MOSES. 171 

then men have appeared in human society, en- 
dowed with minds so vigorous, active, and com- 
manding, as that they have moulded the opinions 
and controlled the intellectual movements of 
their own age and of succeeding generations. 
These were the master-spirits of their age. Such 
were Homer and Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, 
Demosthenes and Caesar, each in his peculiar 
sphere of influence. Such, too, were Charle- 
magne, and but lately, Napoleon, Bacon, Newton, 
and Luther, each in his own department of action. 
But Moses has shown himself the great master- 
spirit, not of one age, but of all ages, and of all 
nations too !" 

Such was Moses — the scholar, the author, the 
patriot, the commander, the prophet, the man of 
piety ! Such is the brilliant assemblage of ex- 
cellences which his character presents, — thus 
justifying the Hebrews in pronouncing him the 
most distinguished man of all their race, and the 
united voice of those who can appreciate great- 
ness, when they declare, that — 

" Take him for all in all, 
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'' 

Sii.vkspeare. 



172 DEBORAH. 



XIII. 
DEBORAH. 

" God," says Cowper, "has appointed a certain 
niche for every individual to fill, and puts every 
individual in the niche thus designed for him." 
There is much truth in this remark, and yet it is 
not all truth. The rule may be general, but has 
its exceptions ; for persons are found in positions, 
and engaged in occupations, for which, both by 
nature and education, they are manifestly unfit- 
ted. They are "out of place," we say. It is 
apparent to every observer, sagacious or casual, 
that this is so ; and what is declared to be a fact 
by all, may reasonably be affirmed to be, partly 
at least, true. 

Woman's sphere — that for wliich the God who 
created her designed her — evidently is the fami- 
ly. For this she has peculiar qualifications — a 
special fitness. Here is her centre of power ; here, 



DEBORAH. 173 

in the relations of life, as wife, mother, or mis- 
tress, is her throne. And yet there are occasions 
when, stepping out of this circle, she shows her- 
self equal to signal achievements, and makes her 
influence happily and widely felt. An illustra- 
tion of this is furnished us in the case of Deborah, 
who, while she discharged the conjugal and do- 
mestic duties of a Jewish female, and had the 
confidence and love of her husband, possessed 
also great civic and administrative virtues, was 
a military heroine, sacred singer, and prophetess, 
Every reader of the Bible must be familiar 
with the term judges, as applied to a class of per- 
sons among the Israelites. We have no office at 
the present day to which this primitive office 
perfectly corresponds. They were individuals 
raised up to meet an exigency then existing— to 
explain and enforce the statutes of Jehovah, be 
the organ of communication between Him and 
his people, animate them to deeds of noble dar- 
ing, and deliver them out of the hands of their 
oppressors. It was an office of responsibility 
and honor, and, as it was nut hereditary, was the 
more creditable to him who held it ; on that ac- 



174 DEBORAH. 

count proving, as it did, the existence in him of 
high and commanding qualities. 

Such a judge was Deborah. The word Debo- 
rah signifies a bee, aptly illustrative of her who 
" had honey for the friends and a sting for the 
enemies of Israel !" The wife of Lajndoth, she 
judged Israel at that time, and dwelt under a 
palm tree between Eamah and Bethel in Mount 
Ephraim. There she gave forth utterances of 
wisdom, adjusted differences between man and 
man and tribe and tribe, and was the fount of 
human authority in all matters of general con- 
cernment. She denominates herself "a mother 
in Israel," and this term is not inappropriate in 
its application to her ; for she had that tender, 
wakeful concern for Israel which a mother has 
for her offspring; consulted for their welfare, 
sympathized with them in their trials, and aimed 
to further their interests by all the resources 
which she possessed. 

The condition of the Jews at this period wai 
a lamentable one. They had wickedly departed 
from the Lord, and were " receiving that recom- 
pense of their iniquity which was meet." by being 



DEBORAH. 175 

subjected to the tyranny of Jabin, king of Ca- 
naan. They were besieged by their foes, the high- 
ways occupied by them ; they were deprived of 
shields and spears, and no opportunity afforded 
them of manufacturing others ; and what was 
more and worse, a disheartened, cowardly, craven 
spirit was diffused through the nation, inchning 
them to settle submissively down, and make no 
effort to throw off the yoke of bondage. In 
these desperate circumstances, the genius of De- 
borah illustriously appears. In her triumphal 
song she says : 

" In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, 
In the days of Jael, the ways lay desert, 
And highway travellers went in winding by-paths. 
Leaders failed in Israel, they failed, 
Until that I, Deborah, arose, 
That I arose, a mother in Israel.'' 

Military talent, martial prowess, have been 
deemed the attributes of men ; but when men lay 
supinely on their backs, hugging their inglorious 
chains, she stepped forth as her country's cham- 
pion, and from her canopy of state under the 
shade of the palm tree, there went out clarion 



176 DEBORAH. 

notes, which roused desponding men to a sense 
of their rights, and moved a host to battle.* 
Summoning to her presence Barak, the son of 
Abinoam, she infused into his breast some of her 
own patriotic ardor, and urged him to strike a 
blow for the liberties of Israel. At first he de- 
murred to the proposition. Such an enterprise, 
in his view, would be fruitless, and serve but to 
rivet more closely the fetters already upon them. 
She desisted not, however, from her fervent ap- 
peals to him, until at length she effected her 
purpose. He consented to undertake the com- 
mission, on condition that she should go with him 
as a companion and directress. They accordingly 
went to Kadesh, which was made the place of 
rendezvous for an army; and there, by their 
joint endeavors, were gathered, from Zebulon and 
Naphtali, a force of ten thousand men, at the 

* When Greece was invaded by Xerxes, so much adroitness 
and prowess were manifested by Artemesia, a notable female 
of Halicarnassus, that the imperial general remarked, that 
" the men had acted like effeminate women, and the women 
like stalwart men/' There are womanish males, as there are 
Amazonian females. A lion heart is sometimes found in 
those whose nature it is to feel their dependence. 



DEBOK AH. 177 

head of which, they went to, and pitched their 
tents on, Mount Tabor. This movement was not 
unperceived by Sisera, the captain of the hosts 
of Jabin, who, with a far superior number of 
troops, backed by a formidable armament of nine 
hundred chariots of iron, marched to what he 
confidently supposed a signal victory. Indeed, 
this collection of incensed, turbulent Jews, in 
their encampment, was considered by him as 
merely an insurrection, which he expected, by a 
single decisive onslaught, to quell and punish. 
But greatly was he mistaken. On the signal of 
battle being given by Deborah, in the stirring 
language : " Up ! for this is the day in which the 
Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hands : is 
not the Lord gone out before thee?" lo, "one 
chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand to 
flight!" the children of Israel, miraculously aided, 
caused the forces of the Canaanites to be com- 
pletely routed. " The Lord discomfited Sisera, 
and all his chariots, and all his host, with the 
edge of the sword, before Barak." "The stars 
in their courses fought against them;" which 
expression, as interpreted by Josephus, means, 



178 DEBORAH. 

" that a furious storm of wind and rain, mingled 
with hail, put out the eyes of the troops of Sisem, 
and drove back the hurtling arrows upon their 
own heads." He himself, hotly pursued, leaped 
from his chariot, as Napoleon, a fugitive from the 
lost field of Waterloo, and fled away on foot to 
the tent of Heber the Kenite ; but only by the 
hand of another heroine to meet his end. Shel- 
tered there, concealed there, and, as he supposed, 
safe there, weary and worn out, he fell into a 
deep sleep ; and as this scourge of Israel there 
lay in unconsciousness, a woman, Jael by name, 
taking one of the long pins which secured the 
tent-cords to the ground in one hand, and a mal- 
let in the other, stealthily approached him ; and 
putting the pin against his temples, smote it with 
an aim so true, and with blow upon blow so 
great, that the pin passed through, and fastened 
the bleeding head to the ground.* 

* The tents of the Bedouin Arabs are kept firm and steady 
by bracing or stretching down their eaves with cords tied 
down to hooked wooden pins well pointed, which they drive 
into the ground with a mallet ; one of these pins answering 
to the nail as the mallet does to the hammer, which Jael used 
in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera." — Sbaw ? s 
Travels. 



DEBORAH. 179 

So completely subdued were the Canaanites by 
this carnage of the field, and this humiliating 
death of their commander-in-chief, that for forty 
years they gave Israel no further trouble, and the 
land had rest. 

Deborah, still continuing to exercise her for- 
mer function as a judge, next appears as a poet 
and sacred singer, in the triumphal ode composed 
by her, commemorative of this great victory over 
King Jabin's host. It must strike every reader 
of taste as sublime and beautiful, though much of 
its sublimity and beauty is lost to those who are 
strangers to the Hebrew, in which it was origin- 
ally written. Charming as it appears in our 
English version, this finished specimen of Hebrew 
poetry has merits and graces which no translator, 
however qualified, can eliminate and express. 
Observes one who has attempted this, and is 
competent to speak with authority : " Her strains 
are bold, varied, and sublime ; she is everywhere 
full of abrupt and impassioned appeals and per- 
sonifications ; she bursts away from earth to 
heaven, and again returns to human things. She 
touches now upon the present, now dwells upon 



180 DEBORAU. 

the past, and closes at length, with the grand 
promise and results of all prophecy, and of all 
the dealings of God's providence, that the wicked 
shall be overthrown, while the righteous shall 
ever triumph in Jehovah's name." And remarks 
another: " In the hymn of this mother in Israel, 
the poetry of war comes to its culmination. Not 
the hoofs of many horses running to battle pro- 
duce such a martial music as do her prancing 
words. How she rolls the fine vesture of her 
song in blood! How she dares to liken her 
doings to the thunder-shod steps of the God of 
Sinai ! The song begins with God, and with God 
it ends." How forcibly the death of the slain 
Sisera is described ! 

"At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down ; 
At her feet he bowed, he fell : 
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead !" 

And then the view of his watching and wait- 
ing mother at the lattice, — how graphic and life- 
like ! 

" The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, 
And cried through the lattice : 
Why is his chariot bo long in coming? 
Why tarry the wheels of his chariot ?" 



DEB ORA H. 181 

And the answer, too, — alike the utterances of 
her ladies and the echo of her own heart, — how 
spirited and significant ! 

" Have they not sped ? 
Have they not divided the prey ? 
To every man a damsel or two ; 
To Sisera a prey of divers colors, 
A prey of divers colors of needlework, 
Of divers colors of needlework on both sides, 
Meet for the necks of them that take the spoil I" 

All is fine, eminently, surpassingly so, vindi- 
cating her claim as a prophetess and poet beyond 
contradiction. 

Eare is it that you find such a combination of 
gifts in the person of a woman. Her natural 
aptitude for expounding and enforcing civil and 
religious statutes; the integrity and purity of 
her patriotism; her undaunted resolution and 
martial valor, with her poetic and musical skill ; 
all conspire to raise her to a position of fame 
which it has been the lot of few females to reach, 
and a contemplation of which cannot but be in- 
spiriting and ennobling in its influence upon her 
sex. Deborahs they may never be, Deborahs 
9 



182 DEBORAH. 

they cannot be. But as this matron of Israel 
knew not what lay in her heart and genius till it 
was called forth, so there may lie in the mind 
and souls of our readers hidden resources, which 
need but to be opened and brought out and con- 
secrated to God, to give them a deathless name 
upon the earth, and insure to them a rich recom- 
pense of reward in heaven. May this prove true 
with respect to each one of them! As from 
under the spreading boughs of the palm tree in 
Eamah there issued a power by which dangers 
were dared and marvellous exploits done, the 
basis of freedom widened, and a glorious triumph 
given to the covenant people of God ; so from 
the hearthstones of our readers may there go out 
influences by which the kingdom of darkness 
shall be successfully invaded, religion spread, and 
humanity saved! 

As the laurels of Miltiades would not suffer 
Themistocles to sleep, so may the achievements 
of Deborah, showing what woman, even out of 
her appropriate sphere, can do, awaken an ambi- 
tion in her sex to become famous also, — famous, 
not for military prowess and conquests, but for 



DEBORAH. 183 

the advancement of themselves and others in 
knowledge, in virtue, and in excellence of all 
kinds.* For, well speaketh the poet : 

" Though louder fame attend the martial rage, 
'Tis greater glory to reform the age." — Waller. 

* We hope that our commendation of Deborah's spirit and 
enterprise will not be interpreted as committing us in favor 
of the " Woman's Rights" movement,— woman voting, lectur- 
ing, serving on committees, &c.,— procedures not less impoli- 
tic than immodest and unnatural. 



184 G I D E O X . 

XIV. 
GIDEON. 

This distinguished personage — the fifth in 
order of the Judges of Israel — was the son of 
Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh, and when called 
into his country's service, resided at Ophrah, in 
Gilead, beyond the Jordan. 

The Jews were at this period in bondage to 
the Midianites, who, from time to time, made 
incursions into their territory, and bore off the 
products of their fields, leaving behind, on these 
predatory excursions, barely enough to enable 
the Jews to subsist. It was quite important, 
therefore, for them to conceal as much of their 
crops as possible. Accordingly, the corn was 
not threshed out near the field where it grew, but 
in some retired place among the vineyards. It 
was in such a place, a smooth and clean spot of 
ground near a wine-press, that Gideon was 
"threshing wheat to hide it from the Midian- 



GIDEON. • 185 

ites," when a heavenly stranger appeared to him, 
and accosted him with the words — u The Lord is 
with thee, thou mighty man of valor." This 
language to one so engaged — stealthily, labori- 
ously working there to obtain food — threshing, 
that the lowing of the oxen by which the corn 
was usually trodden out might not betray him, 
and threshing upon the ground, and not from 
a wooden floor, that the strokes of the flail 
might not echo and direct thither his rapacious, 
cormorant oppressors ; such language addressed 
to such a man in such circumstances, fell upon 
his ear as a cruel irony, and hence his reply to 
the visitant, whose appearance betokened no 
ordinary stranger: "0 my Lord, if Jehovah, as 
you say, be with us, why hath all this befallen 
us ? Why am I here, employed as I am, and 
why are my people in bondage ? If the Lord be 
with us, as he was with our fathers, where are 
his miracles in our behalf, and why are we in 
such cruel thraldom? 1 ' 

The celestial stranger debated not the matter 
with him, but looking earnestly upon him, said 
in words of emphasis and authority, — " Go in this 



186 GIDEON. 

thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the 
hands of the Midianites. Have not I sent 
thee?" 

Gideon, like Moses, naturally modest and self- 
distrusting, underrated his capacity to conduct 
such an enterprise, and replied, " O my Lord, 
wherewith shall I save Israel ? Behold, my fami- 
ly is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my 
father's house." 

He forgot that there was another I, not mortal 
and impotent like himself, but eternal and omni- 
potent ; and on that one's affirming again, " Sure- 
ly I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the 
Midianites as one man," assurance came to him, 
and his arm was supernaturally nerved for the 
great work he was commissioned to undertake. 
Demurring no more, he pressed his hospitality 
upon the divine stranger, who, instead of eating 
the cake prepared, caused fire to come down from 
heaven and consume it, and then suddenly van- 
ished. 

The first thing done by Gideon, was overturn- 
ing the local image and altar of Baal — a wry 
appropriate initiatory step to other exploits ; and 



G I D E X . 187 

when remonstrated with by the friends of that 
false god, they were tartly and sarcastically told, 
that he was not worth much as a tutelar divinity, 
for if he could not protect himself — and it was 
evident he could not, or his local image and altar 
would not have been thrown down — he certainly 
was unable to protect his followers ! Baal, thus 
in the dust, and his grove levelled to the earth, 
and an altar to Jehovah, with a sacrifice thereon, 
secured in their stead, Gideon blew a trumpet, 
called the Jewish forces together, and prepared 
them to proceed against their enemies. 

Two nights before their march, their spirits 
and those of their leader were much animated by 
two miraculous signs, which they asked of Jeho- 
vah as tokens of victory, and which were gra- 
ciously given. The first was a fleece, laid out on 
an open threshing-area over night, which fleece 
was quite wet in the morning, while the soil 
around was quite dry ; and the other was the 
same sign reversed, or the identical fleece on the 
next night, perfectly dry, while the surrounding 
ground was saturated with dew. Immediately 
upon receiving these proofs of the Lord's patron- 



183 G 1 1) E O X . 

age, Gideon advanced towards the allied invader?, 
who, a numerous and mighty host, had encamped 
on the great plain of Jezrecl. 

The army of Israel, likewise, was not small, 
for it numbered no less than thirty -two thousand 
men ; — so large, they might perhaps think that 
it was their own prowess and energy to which 
success was to be attributed. To guard, there- 
fore, against this, and to insure the glory of the 
coming victory to Jehovah alone, to whom it of 
right exclusively belonged, expedients were re- 
sorted to, under divine direction, greatly to re- 
duce their numbers. First, it was announced 
from headquarters, that all faint-hearted ones had 
liberty to withdraw ; a privilege of which twenty- 
two thousand availed themselves. Ten thousand 
then remained. These, however, being thought 
still too numerous, they were taken down to a 
brook, and every one who "lapped the water as 
a dog lappeth," was segregated from those who 
bent down on their knees to drink. Most of the 
ten thousand "brought their mouths near the 
water, and luxuriated in a leisurely manner." 
Only three hundred continued on their feet, and 






GIDEON. 189 

quenched their thirst by tilling the hollow of 
their hands with water, and jerking it into their 
mouths, an action "not inaptly compared to the 
rapid projection and retraction of a dog's tongue 
in lapping;" and these three hundred, whose con- 
duct on this occasion — if it indicated character — 
denoted men of quick and energetic action, enter- 
prising men, were the only ones retained; and 
with this limited select band, God, through Gi- 
deon, proposed to redeem Israel from their op- 
pressors. 

As the confidence and firmness of Gideon had 
been increased through signs furnished him by 
the AJmighty, he is further told, in connection 
with his armor-bearer Phurah, to go down to the 
camp of the Midianites by night, and see some- 
thing more to strengthen his faith. In the dark- 
ness of the night they went thither, and there 
they found the huge host of their enemies wrapt 
in slumber, covering the ample plain. As they 
arrived at the outer border of the encampment, 
they overheard one of the outposts speaking to 
another, relative to a strange dream which he had 
had, and which exercised his mind greatly. It 
9* 



90 GIDEON. 

was, that as the Midianites' army lay encamped 
upon the plain, a cake of barley-meal rolled from 
an adjacent hill, and came against the tent with 
such momentum, that the tent was thrown down. 

The word in the original Hebrew, here trans- 
lated tent, signifies the most valuable and strong- 
est tent — the royal tent, therefore ; that which 
was spread out over the King of Midian and his 
generals ; and hence the man to whom the 
dreamer told his dream, readily interpreted it as 
he did. The interpretation was, that the barley- 
cake was the sword of Gideon, and that by him, 
under God, Midian and all the host were to be 
vanquished. 

This was enough for Gideon. He was willing 
to be symbolized by an humble cake of barley- 
meal, so he might smite the enemies of Israel to 
their overthrow. Inspirited thus, he made no 
delay, but resorting to a remarkable stratagem — 
arming his three hundred chosen troops with a 
trumpet in one hand, and a pitcher enclosing a 
lighted torch in the other, and dividing them into 
three ranks, that they might approach the enemy 
simultaneously in three different directions, he 



GIDEON. 191 

came suddenly upon them under cover of dense 
darkness. At a concerted signal, all dashed their 
pitcher, lifted up their torches, sounded their 
trumpets, and shouted, "The sword of the Lord 
and of Gideon." The fright thus caused was 
equivalent to a panic. "The sudden glare of 
torches on the margin of the camp, the din on. all 
sides, the united war-cry rising above the whole, 
coupling the sword of Gideon with the dread 
name of Jehovah, struck terror into the Midian- 
ites suddenly awakened from their sleep, and 
perhaps dreaming of defeat, and instead of turn- 
ing their weapons against the invaders, they 
fought and slew one another." 

The slaughter was great, without the Israelites 
striking a blow ! Then followed a general and 
precipitate flight; and the masses being now 
thoroughly united in pursuit of the flying foe, 
and hotly pressing them and cleaving down, few 
comparatively escaped. The tribe of Ephraim, 
stationing themselves at the lower fords of the 
Jordan, cut off all who fled in that direction, 
while those who hoped fco escape by the upper 



192 GIDEON. 

fords, encountered the stout-hearted troop of 
Gideon. 

Among the captured, were two noted tyrants, 
Zeba and Zalmunna, who met the fate their bar- 
barous deeds so richly merited. 

Gideon having thus emancipated Israel from a 
bondage the most galling to which they had been 
subjected since they had cast off the brutal yoke 
of Pharaoh, was solicited by the nation, so deeply 
indebted to him for his achievements, to become 
their supreme ruler; but the offer he declined. 
"I," was the noble language of the hero, "I will 
not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over 
you; Jehovah, he shall rule over you." Thus 
putting away the offer of the crown from himself 
and his sons — an act, when we consider the na- 
tural passion of mankind for power, far more to 
his credit than even his triumph over the enemies 
of his country ; he consented to receive only the 
golden ear-rings of his vanquished foes, which 
ornaments were cheerfully given him. 

The latter days of this, one of the most respect- 
ed and illustrious of Israel's Judges, were not 



GIDEON. 193 

unmarked by defects of character, but his life 
was peaceable, and his death occurred at an ad- 
vanced age ; and we find his name on that bright 
record of the faithful, the eleventh chapter of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews. 



194 B UTH. 



XV. 
RUTH. 

At the period when the attractive history on 
which we are now entering, commences, the land 
of Israel was suffering from famine. God has 
many ways of chastising his people when they 
depart from him ; and among others, by causing 
the earth to be sparing of her fruits. "A fruit- 
ful land doth God make barren, for the wicked- 
ness of them that dwell therein." Canaan, " the 
land flowing with milk and honey, the land as 
the garden of the Lord for beauty and abund- 
ance," produced not enough, because of the sins 
of the inhabitants, to support those inhabitants; 
and hence many were driven out to seek subsist- 
ence elsewhere. Among those forced from this 
cause to emigrate, was a man from Bethlehem 
Judah, whose name was Elimelech. He, with 
his family, a wife and two sons;, loft the land of 



RUTH. 195 

Canaan, and sought an asylum in the territories 
of Moab. But though by thus exiling himself 
he escaped the woes of famine, he could not es- 
cape that insatiate spoiler, death, who found him 
soon after his removal to Moab, and cut short his 
days upon the earth. His wife Naomi was thus 
unexpectedly left a widow in a foreign land, far 
from her country and friends, and with the charge 
upon her of two fatherless children. These two 
surviving sons became in time allied through 
marriage to the Moabites — one of them marrying 
a woman named Orpah, the other a female by 
name Kuth. Death, however, was still busy 
with the family ; and soon both these sons — the 
comfort of their wives and the stay and hope of 
their widowed mother — were swept away child- 
less in the prime of their age. These props on 
which Naomi had leaned, being thus stricken 
down into the dust, made her resolve to return 
again to Bethlehem. The famine, she had been 
informed, had ceased ; plenty had taken the place 
of scarcity ; and herself poor and afflicted, strug- 
gling with poverty, and bowed with sorrow, deter- 
mined to go back t<> her native country and kin- 



196 RUTH. 

dred. This her purpose she communicated to her 
daughters-in-law, Orpah and Kuth. They listened 
to her, and though bound by many ties to the 
country where they were, were yet inclined to 
accompany her whose affection they had tried and 
whose sympathy they had shared. She, on the 
.other hand, aware of the difficulties of the jour- 
ney, and of the trials to which, on their arrival at 
Bethlehem, they would probably be subjected, 
endeavored to dissuade them from so doing. 
They, however, were unwilling to separate them- 
selves from her, and set out upon the road with 
her. They had not, however, proceeded far 
when she again besought them, from every con- 
sideration that reason and prudence could sug- 
gest, not to cast in their lot with her, a poor, 
unprotected, unbefriended foreigner, but to leave 
her and go back again to their homes. Her ge- 
nerous, touching, pious language was, " Go, re- 
turn each to your house : the Lord deal kindly 
with you, as you have dealt with the dead and 
with me. The Lord grant that you may find 
rest, each of you in the house of her husband/' 
She then kissed them, and they lift up their voice, 






RUTH. 197 

and wept. By this eloquence of words and tears, 
one of the daughters, Orpah, allowed herself to 
be persuaded, and, parting from her mother-in- 
law Naomi with the valedictory kiss of peace, 
went back to her own country, and is heard of 
no more. Ruth, however, was not so wrought 
upon. The disinterested language and affection- 
ate tears of her mother-in-law only made her 
more dear, only knit to her her affections more 
closely, and she insisted upon going with her, and 
living and dying with her. " Orpah kissed her 
mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her." We 
see here the temper and disposition of these two 
girls. Orpah had a tender and feeling heart, and 
was formed for virtuous friendship ; but Ruth, 
while she had such a heart, had also what Orpah 
had not, a steady, resolute, self-denying spirit. 
"While we can love the one, Ave are forced to love, 
respect, and admire the other. "And Ruth said, 
Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from 
following after thee, for whither thou goest I will 
go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy 
people shall be my people, and thy God my God ; 
where thou diest will I die, and there will I be 



198 RUTH. 

buried : the Lord do so to me, and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me." Naomi could 
not resist the unalterable resolution breathed out 
in words like these — the noble sacrifice of her- 
self which Kuth had made. She uttered no re- 
ply to this appeal, but committing the event, and 
whatever consequences might flow from it, to an 
overruling Providence, these two female pilgrims 
travelled on together towards Bethlehem. 

After many a weary step across the Arnon, 
across the Jordan, and over the mountains, they 
reached Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley - 
harvest.* The old acquaintances of Naomi soon 
gathered round her and welcomed her back ; but 
so altered was her appearance from what it once 
was — such a change had time, poverty, and afflic- 
tion, made in her appearance, that they hardly 
knew her. " Is this Naomi ?" said they, — once 
so fresh and fair ; to which her answer was, " Call 
me not Naomi, but call me Mara, or bitter, for 
the Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me ; I went 

* They commenced cutting their barley as soon as the notes 
of the cuckoo were heard, which bird usually made its ap- 
pearance in the middle of April. 



RUTH. 199 

out full, and the Lord hath brought me home 
again empty." 

She returned, we have said, about the time of 
the barley-harvest, and in the extremity of their 
need, Euth endeavored to gain a subsistence for 
herself and Naomi, by gleaning after the reapers 
in the fields. There was still resident in Bethle- 
hem a wealthy kinsman of her deceased father- 
in-law, Elimelech, named Boaz ; and Grod so or- 
dered it, — Providence so directed her steps, that 
"her hap was to light on a field belonging unto 
him." As his servants were reaping, and gather- 
ing in his grain, he as a wise master came to see 
how the work went forward ; and observing a 
strange female gleaning in his field, he made in- 
quiries of the workmen concerning her. They 
gave him a very good account of her ; that she 
was a Moabitess damsel, a proselyte to the Jew- 
ish faith, who had come out from the country of 
Moab, to settle in the land of Canaan ; that she 
was modest and industrious, gleaning only in 
those places where she was allowed to glean, and 
keeping close to her work. On hearing this, 
Boaz was very civil to her, and told his reapers 



200 RUTH. 

to be so also ; and further charged them to " let- 
fall some of the handfuls of grain on purpose for 
her." Kuth received his kindness with great 
humility and gratitude, and showed such a deli- 
cate sense of propriety in what she said and did, 
as won for her his cordial respect and further 
favors. 

On looking at the results of her labor that day, 
she found she had gathered a full ephah, or about 
four pecks. This she took to her mother-in-law 
Naomi, and divided with her; whom she told 
how it so happened that she had obtained so 
much, as also the compassion for her and interest 
in her, which had been shown by Boaz. Naomi 
recognized in this the hand of the Most High ; 
saw in this partiality of Boaz, her nearest kins- 
man, for her daughter-in-law Ruth, an intimation 
of future good ; and at once set herself to the 
accomplishment of what she so much desired, 
and what she believed Jehovah had purposed to 
bring to pass. She counselled Ruth to seek an 
opportunity for intimating to Boaz the near re- 
lationship she sustained to him, and to avail her- 
self also of another expedient to secure his 



RUTH. 201 

friendship: which expedient, though it was 
adopted by prayer, since it was not recorded 
for our imitation, and must not be judged of by 
modern customs and maxims, cannot here be de- 
tailed. Suffice it to say, that the plan laid by 
Naomi was, through the adroitness of Ruth, and 
the blessing of God, completely successful. A 
matrimonial alliance was formed between Boaz 
and Ruth, which was consummated by benedic- 
tions and prayers ; and she who once gleaned in 
his fields as an humble, poverty-stricken stranger, 
presided over his household as a wife. 

This brief history of Ruth presents us with a 
pleasing picture of rural life. 

Benjamin Franklin tells us that, while our 
minister plenipotentiary to the court of France, 
he passed an evening in a literary circle there ; 
and that the conversation turning on Oriental 
life and manners, he took from his pocket a Bible 
which he had with him, and read to the company 
parts of the book of Ruth. They expressed 
themselves delighted with it, as a most beautiful 
exhibition of the honest simplicity of nature and 
the manners of rustic living, and inquired eager- 



202 RUTH. 

ly for the volume in which so touching a pastor- 
al was found. Greatly surprised were the Paris- 
ians when told that it was in the Bible ; for that 
was a book which they had agreed to despise. 
But it is there, and so are many other lovely 
descriptions and biographies there, — descriptions 
and biographies more truthful and charming than 
can be found anywhere else, and which, if found 
anywhere else, would attract towards them the 
admiring eyes of all. But unfortunately for 
worldly-wise men, they are found in the Bible, 
and so are neglected ! And yet what can be 
more graceful and beautiful than this plain, un- 
adorned picture which our subject furnishes ! 

The emigration of Naomi from the land of 
Canaan to Moab ; her misfortunes in her lonely 
exile, stripped of husband and children ; her 
humiliating return again to her country and kin- 
dred ; the filial duty, tenderness and constancy 
of the sweetly timid and bashful, yet the nobly 
resolute and undaunted Ruth ; the harvest field 
of the wealthy Boaz, the reapers busy there, 
cutting the grain, binding up the sheaves, and 
purposely dropping some stalks for a young Mo- 



RUTH. 203 

abitess, a widow and a stranger in a strange land ; 
the favor of the owner of those acres, which her 
personal charms and artless simplicity won ; with 
the pious and daily acknowledgment of God 
throughout, — all combine to make a most de- 
lightful history of Oriental and rural life, and 
form a picture with a beauty of exactness of 
coloring worthy the pencil of inspiration ! For 
a more lovely character than the fair Moabitess 
damsel, or for a more interesting group than the 
sunburnt reapers in the fields of Boaz, or for a 
more pleasing story of a harvest-day's employ- 
ment and recreation, you will search the records 
of history in vain to find ! 

We see likewise the watchful care of Divine 
Providence over families. 

When we behold Elimelech, of the seed of 
Abraham, forced by famine to abandon Bethle- 
hem, and seek food in Moab, we behold what 
has been often seen since, a royal house reduced 
to want and dependence. And when, having 
reached Moab, Elimelech died, and his death was 
followed by the death of his two sons who left 
no children, the family name might seem to have 



204 RUTH. 

become extinct. But no. Christ was to come 
through the tribe of Judah, and so through Eli- 
melech ; and hence we see Naomi preserved, and 
her daughter-in-law, Kuth, married in process of 
time to a near kinsman of her husband ; from 
which union was born one whose descendants 
were a long line of princes until the advent of 
the Messiah! The marriage contract between 
Boaz and Kuth the Moabitess, brought Boaz, in 
accordance with the usage of those times, into 
honest and honorable possession of all the estate 
of the family of Elimelech, and transferred to him 
the right and title to all its honors. Boaz, the 
husband of Kuth, was the great-grandfather of 
David, through whom was transmitted empire 
and fulfilled prophecy, and from whom twelve 
centuries afterwards sprung the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour of the world. So from that solitary 
and almost extinguished taper in Moab, appeared 
the Sun of Righteousness, — and from the very 
ashes of a family, a tender plant blossoming as 
the rose, and fragrant as the smell of Lebanon ! 
Thus are families looked after by Him who " set- 
teth the solitary in families." His far-reaching 



RUTH. 205 

scheme of Providence is carried out through the 
family relation. Without Him no family can 
prosper; but if He be their household God, if 
the heads of the family can say, "As for us and 
our house, we will serve the Lord," then, though, 
like Elimelech in Moab, they may be for a season 
reduced to great straits, He will take care of 
them. This temporary depression may be the 
very means by which prosperity will be most 
relished and enjoyed, — by which virtue will be 
exalted to the highest pitch, and by which in a 
private family may be built up the church of 
God. Let no pious family think for a moment, 
that Jehovah has forsaken them because they are 
brought low. He raiseth the poor out of the 
dust, and lifteth up the needy. If He hath 
taught them to know and choose him as their 
God, He has some noble purpose yet to accom- 
plish through them. And when this noble pur- 
pose of Him who is "wonderful in counsel, and 
excellent in working," is accomplished, they may 
be assured that, after the examples of Abraham, 
Naomi and Job, their "last end will be better 
than was the beginning." 
10 



206 RUTH. 

In the call and conversion of Knth, we have, 
too, an emblem and pledge of the conversion of 
the Gentiles. To the Jews, for many hundred 
years, "pertained the adoption, the glory, the 
covenants, the giving of the law and the pro- 
mises." They were highly favored in this re- 
spect, and properly regarded themselves as the 
peculiar people of God. And not only did they 
plume themselves upon being thus the special 
objects of the divine favor, but presumed like- 
wise that it would be always thus with them, that 
they would be always distinguished above other 
nations by their religious privileges, and the arm 
of God be bared for their defence and exaltation. 
In this they judged incorrectly. No such pro- 
mise was made to them, while there were plain 
intimations to the contrary. As early as the 
days of Euth, the intention of Jehovah to gather 
in the Gentiles might have been seen, for Ruth 
herself was a Gentile. Though a Moabitess, she 
became a proselyte to the Jewish religion, and 
adorned the religion she professed. Though by 
birth a foreigner, an alien from the common- 
wealth of Israel, she, prompted by grace, put her- 



RUTH. 207 

self under the wings of Jehovah and espoused 
his cause. In this, behold " a shadow of good 
things to come," — a token of Jehovah's will and 
ability to disciple all nations, and make the king- 
doms of the earth his own. In the conversion 
and preferment of Euth — in her becoming, from 
a heathen, an Israelite indeed in whom is no 
guile, — in her deliverance from the idolatry of 
Moab and attachment to the faith and worship of 
the God of Israel, — behold an expression of the 
divine purpose, to admit Gentiles to like privi- 
leges with the Jews, and to beat down that par- 
tition wall which separated Gentiles and Jews. 
We wonder that Jews cannot see this. We won- 
der that, pronouncing the book of Euth inspired, 
and lavishing their encomiums upon Euth as a 
perfect character, they cannot see that she, a 
Moabitess, was yet a child of God, and if she, 
then that others may be rescued and redeemed 
also, and Gentiles be admitted to spiritual fellow- 
ship and privileges. Euth is but one, brought 
out of heathenism to the truth, — gathered from 
heathenism to the Shiloh. Around him are yet 
to cluster all nations, — for "Gentiles are to come 



208 RUTH. 

to his light, kings to the brightness of his rising," 
and the whole earth be one vast harvest field oi 
regenerated souls ! 

Our memoir further furnishes a striking exam- 
ple of what is called "a change of fortune." 

Death enters the dwelling of Naomi, goes from 
couch to couch, passes from husband to children, 
spares neither root nor branch, and leaves her 
childless and a widow, to struggle alone with 
poverty, affliction, and neglect. There she is in 
Moab, sunk in woe, with every comfort embit- 
tered and every prospect clouded. But look 
again, and the hand of time has changed the 
scene. Naomi, the exiled widow in a heathen 
land, is in the society of her kindred, — her 
daughter-in-law, allied to wealth, rank, and piety, 
is a mother in Israel, and the house of her own 
deceased husband is built up, and his name re- 
vived in the offspring of Ruth. 

Ruth, likewise, we observe at one time forced 
by the pressure of poverty into the barley field 
to glean there. She asks not for that abundance 
which autumn pours into the lap, but is grateful 
for that pittance which compassion leaves for the 



RUTH. 209 

needy and the stranger. The few scattered ears, 
and the accidentally dropped sheaf, she picks up 
in her round of toil, and is glad as a menial to 
get even them. Thus she is at one time a forlorn 
female, but one step above begging her bread. 
Again you see her, the pride and joy of her hus- 
band, — joint owner of those fields where she once 
gleaned, — mistress of those servants with whom 
she once labored, — the joyful mother of children, 
and brought in among the ancestors of David and 
Christ! Such revolutions in fortune are not 
very uncommon in our world of changes. The 
wheel is constantly revolving, and the depressed 
to-day may be exalted to-morrow. The poor 
and the rich, the lowly and the proud, the hire- 
ling and the employer, change places. None are 
so low, that they may not come up, none sur- 
rounded with clouds so dense and dark, that the 
sun of prosperity may not again shine upon their 
tabernacle. 

He was a wise man who bowed down to the 
fallen statue of Jupiter, in order, as he said, that 
the divinity might show him favor when his 
statue was erected again. There is no one so 



210 RUTH. 

reduced, as to have his good- will of no worth ; 
none so high, as to warrant in him insolence and 
unkindness ; and no one so crushed and depend- 
ent, as to have utterly extinguished in his breast 
the flame of hope. 

Once more. We may observe the far-reaching 
and momentous results of a single act. 

"Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth 
clave unto her." Both these girls loved Naomi ; 
both enjoyed her society; both determined to 
cast in their lot with her and accompany her to 
Bethlehem ; and both left Moab for this purpose. 
But one of them, Orpah, stopped. She wanted 
Ruth's resolution to proceed, and halted, and 
went back to Moab, — to her heathen neighbors 
and her idols. The other girl, Ruth, cleaves to 
her new choice, and unmoved by the example of 
her sister or the formidable obstacles in the way 
of her journey, persists in her purpose. Mark 
the important consequences of these acts of the 
two ! Orpah, conferring with flesh and blood, is 
heard of no more. She probably adopted the 
opinions and customs of her native land, and 
lived and died an idolater; while Ruth, adhering 



RUTH. 211 

firmly to her choice, relinquishing at once and 
for ever the superstitions of Moab, and espousing 
the rites of Canaan, is embalmed in the respect 
of millions on earth, and is a partaker of the joys 
of heaven ! 

So have I seen two persons set out for the Ca- 
naan which is above. Both were thoughtful, 
both were anxious for their souls, both resolved 
to obtain and possess religion. But one con- 
tinued not steady and persevering. As he 
thought of the sacrifices he must make, the diffi- 
culties and trials of the narrow way, his heart 
failed him, and he went back to a vain and wick- 
ed world. What has become of him ? Eead in 
his present thoughtlessness, impenitence, and 
guilt, that his "last state is worse than the first." 
What will become of him ? Inspiration answers, 
"He that putteth his hand to the plough and 
looketh back is not fit for the kingdom of God." 

The other, on the contrary, cleaved to truth 
and religion ; said to the people of God, " Whither 
thou goest, I will go ; where thou lodgest, I will 
lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy 
God my God;" and he is a stable, consistent, 
growing Christian. He is with the children of 



212 RUTH. 

God now, he will die the death of the righteous, 
he will rise with them at the resurrection morn- 
ing, and will inhabit with them realms of light 
and bliss for ever ! 

"Who of our readers have set out for the hea- 
venly Canaan? Who, having set out, will lin- 
ger, halt and perish? Beloved, be not almost, 
but quite saved. You may almost reach the 
Rock of Ages, and yet the returning wave may 
bear you away from hope for ever. You may 
come even to the door of salvation, put your foot 
on the threshold and your hand on the latch, and 
yet perish ! 

Have the courage, then, not only to resolve to 
do right, but carry out your resolution. Cleave 
to Christ, as did Ruth to Naomi. Cleave to Him 
in all places and at all times, and bind your souls 
to Him in everlasting bonds. He will protect 
you, sustain you, and crown your brows with 
the wreath of victory. But, be discouraged, give 
over the pursuit of salvation, and go back to 
Moab, — back to the beggarly elements of a vain 
and evil world, — and that one act will part y<>u 
from the people of God now, at the judgment- 
day, and for ever ! 



XVI. 
HANNAH. 

To woman under the Old Dispensation, the 
being childless was a source of deep regret. 
United in the nuptial bands, they yearned to 
hear the cry of infancy, and to be called by the 
endearing name of — mother. 

Such was the case with Hannah, one of the 
two wives of Elkanah, an Ephrathite. Though 
possessing the confidence and love of her hus- 
band — a love stronger than that cherished for 
his other wife, Peninnah, who had given him a 
goodly progeny — she was yet unhappy, because 
not blessed with offspring. This fact we find her 
bemoaning at the altar of God which was at Shi- 
loh. On one of her visits there, she prayed fer- 
vently for a son, and vowed to Jehovah that if a 
son was given her, he should be devoted to His 
service. As she uttered this prayer and vow in 

10* (218) 



214 HANNAH. 

a low tone of voice, so that her lips only were 
seen to move, the high-priest Eli, who officiated 
at the altar, suspected her of being disguised 
with wine. But to this charge Hannah feelingly 
replied, " No, my lord, I am a woman of a sor- 
rowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor 
strong drink, but have poured out my soul be- 
fore the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a 
daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of 
my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto." 
Then Eli answered and said, — "Go in peace, 
and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition 
that thou hast asked of Him." That petition 
was not denied. In due course of time, a fair, 
lovely babe was born — a boy — whom she called 
Samuel, which name signifies, "asked of God." 
When her husband went up, at the period of 
the annual sacrifice, to the temple of the Eternal, 
she did not accompany him, preferring not to go 
thither until the child was weaned; but when 
this was done, mindful of her vow, she promptly 
repaired to Shiloh with the prescribed offering of 
her store, field and vineyard, of three bullocks, 
an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and 



HANNAH. 215 

presented them and her son to Eli. And she 
said, " my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, 
I am the woman that stood by thee here praying 
unto the Lord, For this child I prayed, and the 
Lord hath given me my petition which I asked 
of him : therefore also I have lent him to the 
Lord ; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to 
the Lord." Then followed an exulting chant in 
lyric poetry — the spontaneous gushings' of a 
heart overflowing with gratitude to the beneficent 
Being who had remembered her in her low es- 
tate, and bestowed the gift for which she had 
pined and which she had sought. Before, when 
she was in that hallowed spot, she was sad, — 
now she was happy. Before, she offered prayer, 
— now she offered praise. Before, she was child- 
less, — now her gentle and trusting nature had a 
new affection unfelt before — a mother's love ! 
True to her sacred promise that the boy should 
be consecrated to the service of the Most High, 
she parted from him, committing him to the 
hands of the high-priest. A severe trial was 
this relinquishment of this crowning jewel of 
her bliss; and feelingly and sweetly has Mrs. 



216 HANNAH. 

Hemans expressed the emotions of "The He- 
brew Mother," at thus leaving the son of her 
prayers and hopes in the temple, and returning 
without him to her home in Eamah. Our read- 
ers will thank us for quoting some of the beau- 
tiful lines. They are as follows : 

" Oh ! the home whence thy bright smile hath parted, 
Will it not seem as if the sunny day 
Turned from its door away ? 
While through its chambers wandering weary-hearted, 
I languish for thy voice, which past me still 
Went singing like a rill ! 

" Under the palm trees thou no more shalt meet me, 
When from the fount at evening I return 
With the full water-urn : 
Nor will thy sleep's low dove-like breathings greet me, 
As midst the silence of the stars I wake, 
And watch for thy dear sake. 

"And thou, will slumber's dewy cloud fall round thee, 
Without thy mother's hand to smooth thy bed ? 
Wilt thou not vainly spread 
Thine arms when darkness as a veil hath wound thee, 
To fold my neck, and lift up, in thy fear, 
A cry which non^ shall hoar q 



HANNAH. 217 

" I give thee to thy God, — the God that gave thee, 
A well-spring of deep gladness, to my heart ! 
And, precious as thou art, 
And pure as dew of Hermon, He shall have thee, 
My own, my beautiful, my undefiled ! 
And thou shalt ue His child." 

Not empty must have seemed her dwelling 
because the boy was not there, though every 
object therein reminded her of his smiling face, 
his innocent prattle, and his winning ways. She 
however comforted herself with the thought that 
this treasure of her heart was safe under the 
genial wing of God's altar, and that three times 
a year, as she went up thither to the celebration 
of the festivals, she should see him again and 
fold him to her breast. Till then, among other 
matters, she busied herself in making him a 
little coat, the threads of which, woven with her 
own fingers, she knew would be all the more 
valued by the wearer on that account, as evidence 
of a fond parent's affection and skill — which new 
garment at her coming she presented to him and 
put upon him ; and the precious child — no 
longer hers, but God's — " girded with a linen 
ephod, ministered before the Lord" in Shiloh. 



218 HANNAH. 

Who, beholding the lad there, and thus en- 
gaged, can doubt that God accepted the person 
and services of the young? The boy Samuel 
was an approved minister in the courts of the 
Lord, and out of the mouth of this child, God 
perfected strength. He used him to reprove Eli 
for the weak, criminal indulgence of his sons; 
he used him to reform abuses in the church, and 
he used him to repair the breach about to be 
made in the ranks of the priesthood. Youth 
are never more amiable and attractive, never 
more in the path of duty, than when remember- 
ing their Creator, and employed in his business. 
Every thing is beautiful in its season, and piety 
is for all seasons — is the grace of youth, the or- 
nament of maturer years, and of hoary hairs the 
crown. As the child Samuel grew in stature, he 
grew in moral excellence and the favor of God, 
so that she who "lent him to the Lord'' was 
abundantly repaid for the loan, not only in be- 
holding his virtues, but in enjoying the blessings 
which flowed forth from his life to Israel. 

The above brief sketch is fraught with instruc- 
tion to our readers, and gladly would we dwell 



HANNAH. 219 

upon its bearings at greater length than onr 
limits permit. 

It teaches how children should be regarded. 
They should be regarded as a gift from God. 
Not only have they the infinite capacities of the 
soul in them, and an immortal destiny ; not only 
are they an accession to the state ; not only do 
they transmit the paternal name and influence ; 
but they are a fresh manifestation of Jehovah's 
wisdom, benevolence, and might, and as much 
and as directly a gift from his hand, as any other 
gift. And so should they be considered. Thus 
Hannah considered her son. The Lord, she 
said, " remembered her, the Lord gave her the 
petition which she asked of Him." When per- 
sons become parents, they are remembered as 
really as Hannah was, and every infant is in this 
sense a Samuel, as that word imports. God gave 
the little one. It was His before He gave it, and 
when He gave it, He gave what was His own, 
and in what His proprietorship was absolute. 
Hence the language of Scripture, "Lo, children 
are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the 
womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hands 



220 HANNAH. 

of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. 
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of 
them ; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall 
speak with the enemies in the gate." Isaac, 
Jacob, Samson, and John the Baptist, were born 
into the world through the immediate, direct 
influence of faith and prayer ; and though all 
children are not born from these causes, it is 
nevertheless true of all children as it was of 
these worthies, that they are gifts from the hand 
of God, and are to be recognized as such. 

The preceding sketch teaches also what should 
be done with children in their infant age. They 
should be treated as Hannah treated Samuel ; — 
have the same measures taken with respect to 
them, which she adopted in relation to her son. 
What these were, we are left in no doubt. She 
"gave him unto God all the days of his life." 
This was in accordance with the vow which she 
had made. Previous to the birth of the child, she 
had said, " O Lord of Hosts, if thou wilt indeed 
look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and re- 
member me, and not forget thine handmaid, but 
wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then 



HANNAH.* 221 

will I give him unto thee all the days of his 
life." This vow she did not neglect to pay. No 
sooner was he born, than she acknowledged the 
right of God to him, and resigned the boy to 
him for ever. So should every parent do. Their 
first act on taking a new-born infant into their 
arms, should be, a consecration of that infant to 
its Creator's service. 

The next thing done by Hannah was, to re- 
pair to the feast at Shiloh, and there, with her 
little Samuel at God's altar, dedicate him to the 
Lord. The law of Israel demanded for the God 
of Israel, the first-born of every creature. With 
that law she . cheerfully and publicly complied, 
solemnly engaging for her son that he should be 
" a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which was his reasonable service." "I have 
lent him," are her significant words, "unto the 
Lord ; as long as he liveth, shall he be lent unto 
the Lord." There was no reservation here, and 
there was to be no revocation. He was to be the 
Lord's wholly and for ever. 

So should the Christian parent, in the Lord's 
temple and over the Lord's altar, consecrate Lis 



222 HANNAH. 

offspring. The original law in the church of 
God touching the offspring of believers, has 
never been repealed, and an unrepealed law 
abides in force. " The promise is yet unto us 
and to our children," and hence duty and privi- 
lege both demand, that children receive the seal 
of that promise. " The parent is to bring them 
to the altar of God, and there by the name of the 
adorable Trinity, and by the symbols of divine 
and saving influence, pledge himself that, so far 
as his instrumentality can go, and so far as the 
choice and purpose of his own mind are con- 
cerned, his children shall be trained for the ser- 
vice of Christ in this world, and for the inherit- 
ance of the people of God in the next." 

It has been said, that "there is no express 
command in the Bible to baptize infants, and 
therefore they should not be baptized." This is 
supposed to be an unanswerable argument, and 
is urged with an air of triumph. Nowhere, it 
is said, are we told to baptize infants. 

The persons, then, who affirm this, are never 
to do any thing except what they are expressly 
told to do, — nothing for which they cannot show 






HANNAH. 223 

a divine command. Otherwise their argument 
against infant "baptism has no force. For they 
cannot object to my doing that for which I have 
no direct command, as long as they do any thing 
for which they have no express command. If 
the argument is good as against me, it is equally 
good as against them. 

Now will such please to tell us, why they 
keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath ? 
Where is the express command to do so ? Show 
it, that we may see it. 

Why do they observe family prayer ? Many 
of them do so ; all of them ought to do so ; but 
where are they expressly commanded to do so? 
Give us the chapter and verse. 

These persons admit females to the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper. But why? — Where is 
there a "thus saith the Lord" for this? You 
search for it in vain. 

And yet, while these persons do so many things 
for which they have no divine command, they re- 
pudiate infant baptism, because they say, " we are 
not in so many words commanded to practise it." 

What inconsistency ! 



224 HANNAH. 

Another thing Hannah did. Aware that when 
Moses was about to die, he rehearsed in the ears 
of God's 'covenant people the commandments 
and statutes of Jehovah, and enjoined upon 
them to teach the same diligently unto their 
children ; she taught her son to regard those as 
bearing the bright signet of divinity, and to 
regulate his life agreeably to their requirements. 
She placed him in circumstances best fitted to 
make him see and feel the odiousness of sin and 
the beauty of holiness, and placed around him 
every possible shield against seductions to vice. 
She located him where she knew he would be 
watched over, and religiously educated, and 
trained to habits of virtue; and day and night 
her fervent orisons arose for her boy, that he 
might become a godly man, and a faithful pro- 
phet. 

Thus parents are to turn the attention of their 
children to the blessed pages of the Bible ; see 
to it that the word of God dwell in them richly, 
exercise over them a vigilant supervision, and 
call down by prayer, renewing grace upon their 
souls. "From the moment of their birth," God 



HANNAH. 225 

says, " take that child and nurse it for me." Sow 
in that mind the seeds of truth ; engage for me 
those warm affections ; subject to my authority 
that will ; stamp upon that character my moral 
image ; and secure for that accountable, immortal 
creature, committed to your trust, a happy, eter- 
nal home in the mansions of the righteous. 

Note further, the blessed consequences of such 
judicious, pious training. 

The efforts Hannah put forth in behalf of her 
son were not lost. This plant so conscientiously 
cultivated, became a plant of renown, flourished 
in the high places of the earth, and in the courts 
of God, and bore wholesome fruit. See him in 
the midst of surrounding licentiousness, pure 
and exemplary ; see him ministering before the 
Lord with propriety and spirituality; see him 
chosen by the Lord to renew his communications 
with Israel, — the oracle of Shiloh made vocal 
again by this youthful hierophant; see him at 
the convention of the tribes at Mizpeh, elected 
regent ; see him guarding the liberties and rights 
of the nation, developing their resources, and 
elevating the standard of morals among them ; 



226 HANNAH. 

see him a priest, sanctifying offerings by his pray- 
ers ; see him a prophet, an oracle of wisdom ; see 
him a judge, dispensing equal and exact justice 
with the intrepidtty of a hero, and the integrity 
of a saint; see him thus, and learn hereby the 
far-reaching, potential influence of maternal coun- 
sels and supplications. The spirit of Hannah 
pervaded her son, for his spirit he caught from 
her, and in his eminence and usefulness, breathed 
in her life. She lived in him as lives the seed in 
the lovely fragrant flower, — as lives the acorn 
in the branching sturdy oak ! 

What a post of honor, influence, and respon- 
sibility is that occupied by mothers ! For as the 
dip of a swallow's wing on the bosom of a quiet 
lake, sends circling vibrations to the distant 
shore, so do the impulses given by them to their 
offspring, reach on after years have elapsed, 
extend into the remote future, and are felt in all 
departments of human society. 

The success of Hannah in the case of her son 
stands not alone. It is but one of many exam- 
ples of God's blessing on parental faithfulness. 
The parents of the Eeverend Dr. Finlay were 



HANNAH. 227 

accustomed, as a child was born unto them, to 
set apart a day for prayer that it might become 
an exemplary, devoted Christian. They had 
eight children, (seven of whom were sons,) and 
all of them were early distinguished for their 
piety, and grew in grace as their years increased. 
An elder in the Presbyterian Church who had 
twelve sons, (we had the fact from the late ve- 
nerable Dr. Alexander of Princeton,) and who, 
with his wife, was very particular in the religious 
training of them, lived to see those sons all 
elders of the church, and when the descendants 
of these sons numbered more than eighty, there 
was not one of them not a communicant in the 
church of Christ ! It appeared upon careful in- 
vestigation a short time since, that out of one 
hundred and twenty students connected with the 
Theological Seminary at Andover, one hundred 
were the sons of pious mothers ; and that of one 
hundred and fourteen students preparing for the 
work of the ministry at Princeton, all but ten of 
them had pious mothers, and all but thirty-two 
of them had pious fathers also ! Thus does God 
bless children, the church, and the world, through 



228 HANNAH. 

parents. Would that this was fully realized, 
and that there was corresponding action ! Then 
would " our sons be as plants grown up in their 
youth, and our daughters as corner-stones po- 
lished after the similitude of a palace." 
That son, Christian parent, 

" His heart, now passive, yields to thy command : 
Secure it thine — its key is in thine hand. 
If thou desert thy charge, and throw it wide, 
Nor heed what guests there enter and abide, 
Complain not, if attachments lewd and base 
Supplant thee in it, and usurp thy place. 
But if thou guard its secret chambers sure 
From vicious inmates, and delights impure, 
Either his gratitude shall hold him fast, 
Or if he prove unkind, (as who can say, 
But, being man and therefore frail, he may ?) 
One comfort yet shall cheer thine aged heart, 
Howe'er he slight thee, thou hast done thy part." 

Cowper. 



XVIL 
ELI AND HIS SONS. 

In the inspired account of Eli and his sons, 
we have a striking instance of criminal parental 
indulgence, and the lamentable consequences of 
such indulgence. The facts touching this me- 
lancholy case are the following : 

Eli, in whom, when the ark was located at 
Shiloh, the offices of high priest, and regent, or 
civil judge, of Israel were united, was a man of 
natural amiability of temper, and seemingly pos- 
sessed of true piety. Within his ecclesiastical 
and civil jurisdiction he conducted well, admi- 
nistered public affairs wisely, and had the confi- 
dence and respect of those who appreciated active 
virtue. Occupying stations of such importance, 
and presiding there to such general acceptance, 
he might have been regarded, but for a single 
exception, as a peculiarly fortunate man. That 
11 <j»»> 



230 ELI AND HIS SONS, 

exception — that dead fly which spoiled the oint- 
ment — that thorn in the flesh— that bane which 
embittered his bliss — was the undutiful and un- 
godly behavior of his sons. 

He had two, Hophni and Phinehas, who by 
reason of their birth and education were invest- 
ed with sacerdotal authority, and officiated in the 
sanctuary. Eelated thus to the chief ruler of 
Israel, favored with superior educational advan- 
tages and moral culture, and moving in so ele- 
vated and sacred a sphere, these young men. 
might have been expected to present an example 
of uncommon excellence ; but, alas, they were 
profane and profligate. 

Of the beasts sacrificed for peace offerings, the 
law allowed them the shoulders and the breasts, 
after these had been waved before the Lord. The 
remainder of the animal offered in sacrifice was 
the property and at the disposal of him who had 
brought the victim to the altar. Eli's sons, how- 
ever, not satisfied with this their legal allowance, 
grudged the offerers theirs, and while their por- 
tions were boiling in the caldrons contiguous to 
the tabernacle, sent a servant round with a flesh* 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 231 

hook of three prongs, who struck the sharp tri- 
dent into the caldrons, and drew ont whatever 
pieces were attached to it, which pieces, in addi- 
tion to the shoulders and the breasts which the 
law assigned them, they surreptitiously appro- 
priated to their own use. 

ISTor did these dishonest gains satisfy their 
greediness. Since the portions thus drawn up 
from the caldrons were not always the choicest 
portions, they demanded other raw pieces of the 
offerers, that they might have an opportunity of 
preparing them to their taste ; and these pieces 
they demanded even before the fat was removed, 
which fat was solemnly consecrated to Jehovah, 
thus defrauding not only the individuals who 
brought the sacrifices, but likewise that august 
Being to whom the sacrifices were devoted. 

We wonder not that such conduct pained the 
hearts of those pious ones who came to the 
tabernacle to worship, and that the young men 
were devoutly expostulated with for this shame- 
ful betrayal of the high trusts confided to them ; 
and we are not surprised that when such remon- 
strances proved of no avail, but they continued 



232 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

on in this rapacious and sacrilegious course, 
persons refrained from visiting the tabernacle, 
and that sacrifices were few. " The sin of the 
young men," we are told, " was very great before 
the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the 
Lord." 

Nor was this all. Would that it was. But 
these crimes paved the way for others more enor- 
mous still. The excesses of the table were suc- 
ceeded by debauchery, and we are shocked to 
learn that " the women that assembled at the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation were 
abused" by the profligate sons of Eli! So much 
moral leprosy the white ephod covered ! 

Knowledge of this gross indecorum, this glar- 
ing impiety, being brought to their father, what 
did he do ? Manifestly such sacrilegious wicked- 
ness, so malignant in itself and in its bearings 
upon all that was sacred and conservatory, called 
for severe and energetic action on his part; but, 
instead of this, the pontiff, regent, and father, 
only mildly and ineffectually expostulated. In- 
stead of a public arraignment of them, and de- 
served chastisement of them, issuing in sincere 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 233 

repentance and reformation, by which his own 
government might be vindicated, the deep dis- 
gust of the people removed, and the services of the 
tabernacle purged from stain and restored to their 
former sanctity, the fond, indulgent father, with 
an easiness of temper most unbecoming the 
solemn responsibilities of his official character, 
and the stringent exercise of that authority in- 
separable from the parental relation, merely said, 
" Why do ye such things, my sons ? I hear no 
good report of you, but evil ; ye make the Lord's 
people to transgress." How disproportionate a 
remonstrance so mild, to conduct so reprehen- 
sible, guilt so aggravated ! 

But though the father thus connived at the 
delinquencies of his sons, and they escaped with 
so slight a rebuke, the criminal affair was not 
allowed to rest here. A holy God in the heavens 
was conversant with the whole case, and took the 
matter in charge. 

There was with Eli, attached to his person, 
waiting upon the aged high priest, and under his 
watch and care, performing many little duties 
connected with the tabernacle service, the conse- 
crated and pious lad Samuel. 



234 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

What a contrast between this youth, the re- 
generated and devoted son of Hannah, and the 
corrupt Hophni and Phinehas ! The first, a com- 
fort and honor to her that bare him, and a bless- 
ing to the church ; the latter, a heaviness to their 
mother, miserable votaries of " foolish and hurt- 
ful lusts which drown men in destruction and 
perdition," and bringing down the gray hairs of 
a weak yet affectionate father with sorrow to the 
grave ! 

As the young devotee, the child Samuel, was 
reposing in his chamber adjoining the sacred edi- 
fice, he heard some one call him, and supposing 
it to be Eli, he ran unto him and said, " Here am 
I, for thou calledst me." On being told that he 
was mistaken, that Eli had not called him, he 
went back and lay down. Again was his name 
called, and again did he go to Eli, saying, " Here 
am I, for thou didst call me." And he replied, 
"I called not, my son; lie down again." Yet 
once more was he called, and on arising and 
going to Eli as before, and saying, " Here am I, 
for thou didst call me," Eli perceived that the 
Lord had called the child. Eli then told him 
to withdraw to his room, and in event of being 



ELI AND HIS SONS. T&o 

called again, to respond to the summons with 
" Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Soon 
the familiar voice, calling, Samuel, Samuel, was 
heard; and on his answering, " Speak, Lord, for 
thy servant heareth," the fearful doom of Eli's 
apostate house was pronounced. "And the Lord 
said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel 
at which both the ears of every one that heareth 
it shall tingle. In that clay I will perform against 
Eli all things which I have spoken against his 
house ; when I begin I will also make an end. 
For I have told him that I will judge his house 
for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth ; be- 
cause his sons made themselves vile, and he restrain- 
ed them not" 

The threatened judgment came. Though some 
years elapsed first, and the bolt of vengeance 
was held back from the head and family of the 
pontificate, yet at the appointed time it was 
launched, and dreadful Avas the blow. A war 
having arisen with the Philistines, in the first 
encounter with whom the Israelites were repulsed 
with the loss of four thousand men, it was thought 
that victory perched upon the banners of their 



230 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

enemies because of the absence of the ark, the 
symbol of God's favoring presence. It was ac- 
cordingly taken into the field, and Hophni and 
Phinehas accompanied it. With exulting shouts 
its advent was hailed by the hosts of Israel, and 
with fresh prowess infused into their ranks, the 
conflict was resumed. The issue of the battle 
was awaited with intense solicitude by Eli, who 
had taken his seat by the wayside, that the earli- 
est tidings might reach him. They came, borne 
by one retreating from the field with rent gar- 
ments and earth upon his head. And sad indeed 
they were. They told of disaster, and they were 
the vehicle of disaster. They fell like molten 
lead upon the soul of the blind, aged man, whose 
decayed frame was trembling from a presenti- 
ment of evil. They were, " Israel is fled before 
the Philistines; there has also been a great 
slaughter among the people ; thy two sons Hoph- 
ni and Phinehas are dead, and the ark of God 
is taken." What a confluence of calamities ! The 
great dramatist tells us that 

"When sorrows come, they come not tingle spies, 
But in battalion?." 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 237 

A remark in this instance most signally verified. 
There was no redeeming item in the entire mes- 
sage. It was all dismal — a blood-red cycle of 
sorrow! Four furious torrents of tribulation 
united their forces, and broke their billows upon 
the head of the father and priest ! He bore up 
under the tremendous message till the last clause, 
" the ark of Grod is taken," fell upon his ears, but 
that completely overpowered him. He fainted, 
rolled from his seat, and from the imbecile cor- 
pulence of age, broke his neck and expired ! Nor 
was this all, terrible and ruinous as it was. The 
wife of Phinehas died, with the word Iceabod 
upon her lips, which signifies, " the glory is de- 
parted ;" Zadok succeeded to the priesthood in- 
stead of Abiathar, a descendant of Eli ; and if 
we credit a tradition of the Jews, there was at 
Jerusalem a family no one member of which sur- 
vived his eighteenth year, and that doomed 
household were those whose pedigree was trace- 
able back to Eli ! 

Such were the crimes of the sons of Eli ; such 
was the criminal indulgence of the father towards 
them ; and such were the dire judgments which 
11* 



238 ELI AXD HIS SONS. 

such indulgence drew down upon him, upon 
them, and npon Israel ! 

We learn from this brief history of Eli and 
his sons, that grace runs not in the blood, and 
that the children of the pious may be undutiful 
and wicked. 

Eh is generally regarded as having been an 
npright man, fearing God. Nothing militates 
against this popular persuasion, except his dere- 
liction from the path of duty in the management 
of his sons. He seems, by his moral excellences, 
to have attracted towards him the affections of 
the people, while his integrity and ability in dis- 
charging the functions of the sacerdotal and judi- 
cial offices, secured their esteem and praise. 

And yet we see what his sons became. How 
is this to be accounted for? Not to anticipate 
in our answer what Ave propose remarking in 
another place, suffice it here to say, that it may 
be accounted for from that natural law of de- 
pravity, which, as it is universal in its extent and 
action, operates in all, reigned in them, notwith- 
standing grace in the heart of their parent; for 
"that which is born of flesh is flesh." Fallen 






ELI AND HIS SONS. 239 

"Adam," we read, "begat a son in his own like- 
ness ;" after that likeness was fallen Eli, and his 
sons partook, by nature, of his depravity. They 
came into the world with no bias to righteous- 
ness, but with propensities to evil, which propen- 
sities unarrested, unrestrained, would bear them 
onward in a course of iniquity. And what, in 
this particular, was true touching them, has been 
ever true, and is true now, touching the offspring 
of all Christians. Their children partake of their 
native proclivity to sin ; and hence it is that the 
offspring of the pious, notwithstanding their reli- 
gious advantages, and their training up in the 
strictest forms of pious instruction, are sometimes 
in their habits and principles so corrupt. " The 
seeds of sin, that bitter root," have struck deep 
into the soil of the heart, and in spite of all that 
is done to eradicate them, exhibit themselves in 
Avays and works of unrighteousness. Corruption 
runs in the blood, and not piety. 

"If," observed Bishop Hall, "virtue was as 
well entailed on us as sin, one might serve to 
check the other in our children ; but now, since 
grace is derived from heaven on whomsoever it 



240 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

pleases the Giver, and that evil which ours re- 
ceive hereditarily from us, is multiplied by their 
own corruption, it can be no wonder that good 
men have ill children ; it is rather a wonder that 
any children are not evil." 

The narrative further teaches, that it is the 
imperious duty of the father to exert over his 
children a firm, efficient discipline. 

Much is said of maternal influence, and too 
much cannot be said in exaltation of it, unless, 
as we have reason to apprehend, so much is said 
as to relieve the father from a sense of his re- 
sponsibility. The father is the scripturally ap- 
pointed head of the household, and as such has 
an authority and influence of which he can be 
divested only by death, and for the judicious and 
successful use of which he is accountable. To 
him is committed the duty, at the return of morn- 
ing light and evening shade, of bowing down 
with his family and offering fervent prayer; to 
him, equally with the mother, is committed the 
duty of instructing the children from God's holy 
oracles; and while upon them jointly devolves 
the task of correcting faults, bridling tempera, and 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 241 

educating the heart, turning it to the Lord, it is 
his more particular province to issue reasonable, 
"wholesome commands, and enforce obedience 
thereto. 

Without commands there is no known acknow- 
ledged standard of action; without commands 
there are no penalties and no order; with no 
penalties and no order there is no government, 
but every barrier to an inundation of destructive 
influences is levelled, and vice comes in like a 
flood. Fathers may counsel, may warn, may 
remonstrate, may even threaten, but if they pro- 
ceed at no greater length, they stop short of their 
duty, unless by proceeding thus far their will is 
made dominant over the self-will of their off- 
spring, and submission thereto is obtained. 
Hence chastisement is sometimes found neces- 
sary. The Bible recognizes this as a part of 
parental discipline, and to assume to be wiser 
than the Bible is neither proper nor safe. No- 
thing can be more pointed or decisive than the 
declarations of Scripture on this subject. "Fool- 
ishness is bound up in the heart of a child ; but 
the rod of correction shall drive it for from him. 



242 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

Withhold not correction from the child, for if 
thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. 
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt de- 
liver his soul from hell. Chasten thy son while 
there is hope. He that spareth the rod hateth 
his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him 
betimes." Not that brutal violence is to be used, 
not that an intemperate use of the rod is ever 
justifiable, not that in the case of every child the 
infliction of corporeal punishment is imperatively 
necessary, but that when it is necessary, when 
subordination cannot be obtained and obedience 
secured without it, then is this instrument of 
authority and corrector of evil to be put to its 
legitimate and judicious use. "I know Abra- 
ham," said the Lord, "that he will command 
his children and his household after him to do 
justice and judgment." " Com mand his children." 
Here Eli failed. He did not command, or if he 
did, was too tender, indulgent, and yielding, to 
insure corresponding action. His very language 
— "Why do ye such things, my sons? It is no 
good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's 
people to transgress;" — this very language indi- 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 243 

cafc33 weakness, for it is no such expression of 
paternal authority as the magnitude of the case 
demanded. We marvel not that it was impotent 
in its influence — that it " restrained not." It is 
quite probable that Hophni and Phinehas had 
been familiar with kindred language, and with 
nothing more stringent and coercive, all their 
days, so that now the words of their father 
" passed them as the idle wind." Had they from 
infancy been subjected to appropriate parental 
discipline, been taught to obey, these words from 
the lips of a venerable parent, a pontiff and judge 
in Israel, might have availed something; but 
now the young men were too hardened and in- 
tractable to be wrought upon by any such means. 
Accustomed to having their own way in their 
childhood and youth, accustomed to govern, in- 
stead of being governed, their sinful feelings, 
vicious habits, and licentious passions had ac- 
quired a maturity and strength, on which mere 
words had no impression. "Leviathan is not so 
tamed." Had they been ruled early, "chastened 
betimes" the result had been different. And he 
is the affectionate, considerate, faithful father, 



244 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

who by taking an opposite course, — commanding 
his children and his household after them in the 
ways of the Lord, — thereby secures subordina- 
tion, moulds the characters of his children aright, 
and obtains for himself filial reverence and love. 

The narrative teaches, moreover, the dreadful 
consequences of excessive parental indulgence. 

Though this point has been adverted to, it de- 
serves more than a passing glance. 

What dire calamities flowed from Eli's guilty 
unfaithfulness ! The record thereof, like the roll 
beheld in vision by Ezekiel, was lamentation, 
mourning and woe. His own heart was crushed, 
his own soul tortured, his own life taken away 
with a stroke, perdition brought upon his sons, 
reproach and suffering upon their descendants, 
and dismay and disaster upon all Israel ! Fear- 
ful retribution ! — and was it too severe ? Those 
will think so who think lightly of parental obli- 
gations, and are disposed to apologize for parental 
delinquencies, no doubt ; but such was not the 
estimate set upon Eli's deadly sin by a just and 
merciful God, or he would have been spared its 
infliction. The harvest of shame, sorrow, and 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 245 

distress, which in divine providence his conduct 
produced, revealed its atrocity in the eyes of the 
God of providence. Parental negligence and 
folly are no venial class of transgressions. It is 
no trifling thing to be entrusted with the guardi- 
anship of youth. Boyhood and girlhood are 
fashioning manhood and womanhood. The dis- 
position and deportment nursed at the fireside 
under parental tendance in the impressibility of 
early years, are borne onward, and develop them- 
selves in the drama of future life. "The child 
is father of the man," and what men are to be, 
and women are to be, and the character of society 
is to be, depends upon how the domestic circle 
is regulated, and children are trained. 

This consideration it was which made the sin 
of Eli so great. It was heinous exceedingly, be- 
cause it affected not only himself, but the immor- 
tal interests of his sons, and the community at 
large. It was rebellion against the divine govern- 
ment, was the perversion of sacred authority, and 
struck a fatal blow at the foundations of good 
order, morality, and religion. In neglecting his 
duty as a parent, he set in motion a train of evils 



246 ELI AND HIS SONS. 

which not only filled his own cup of woe, broke 
his own heart and neck, but gave over the ark 
of God into the hands of the uncircumcised Phi- 
listines, and entailed calamities upon unborn 
generations. 

Let no parent think lightly of the responsi- 
bilities imposed upon him. Let no one think that 
his children are naturally so amiable and so good, 
that they can be safely left to their own chosen 
way, unchecked and uncontrolled. Let him not 
weakly indulge them in their wayward fancies 
and inclinations, or connive at their faults and 
follies, for in the hot-bed of such noxious pro- 
ducts, thistles and the deadly nightshade will most 
certainly appear. Pursuing such a course, he will 
find at length, alas, that he is making, poisoning, 
and pointing arrows to "pierce his soul through 
with many sorrows." 

Parents can in no way more certainly make 
themselves wretched than by connivance at their 
children's sins. If they wish their own ears to 
tingle, and hearts to ache, let them take this 
course, We know that it is much easier to let 
children go unrestrained, than to restrain them : — 



ELI AND HIS SONS. 247 

let tliem have tlieir own way, than keep them in 
the right way; — let them come np themselves, 
than to bring them np ; but is it easier in the end t 
That is the question. A question which the fate 
of Eli and his sons very distinctly and conclu- 
sively answers. 

We cannot refrain from adding, that a deep 
and solemn interest should be taken in the pre- 
ceding history by our young readers. Let them 
see here the fruits of juvenile insubordination 
and depraved tempers. The germs of that aggra- 
vated wickedness which brought Hophni and 
Phinehas to their untimely end, cut them down 
in the midst of their days, and hurried them 
unprepared to the bar of an offended God, were 
nurtured in childhood. Their destruction was 
just the result of their undutiful profligate career. 
They were self-confident and self-willed, scorned 
parental admonitions and entreaties, and gave 
free rein to their licentious passions ; and, by so 
doing, agonized the soul of a venerable father, 
were objects of public abhorrence, and plucked 
down ruin upon their own heads ! Imitate 
t 1km u not, unless you would be partakers of 



248 ELI AND II I S SONS. 

their plagues. " Children, obey your parents 
in the Lord, for this is right. The eye that 
mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his 
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 
and the young eagles shall eat it !" Many have 
confessed upon the scaffold, that the crimes which 
brought them there, commenced with despising 
parental restraints and counsels; and as the 
corpses of such criminals were denied burial, 
and were suspended as was the body of Pha- 
raoh's baker, the flesh of which was torn from 
the bones by birds of prey ; it is literally true 
that the mocking eye has become the food of the 
raven and the eagle. Survey such examples to 
escape a like end, as the sailor looks at the flame 
of a lighthouse to escape the rock on which it 
stands. 



XVIII. 

SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR. 

Mankind have a strong propensity to pry 
into the future. Though " secret things belong 
unto the Lord our God," men would dispute 
God's exclusive possession of them, by endea- 
voring to gain possession of them themselves. 
Hence the variety of measures resorted to for 
the purpose of lifting the curtain which shuts 
from human view what is to be, and ascertaining 
what lies behind it. A memorable instance of 
this prurient curiosity on the part of mankind is 
furnished us in the history of Saul, who, in the 
perplexity of his affairs, with clouds lowering 
over the future, repaired to Endor, near Mount 
Tabor, in order to consult a woman dwelling 
there, who had a familiar spirit. 

Neither in sacred history nor profane history 
is there a character more sad to view than that 
of Saul the son of Kish, a person of considera- 

(249) 



250 SAUL AND THE 

tion in the tribe of Benjamin, and the first king 
of the Israelites. 

In person tall and commanding, towering head 
and shoulders above any of the people,endowed 
with much physical strength and with no ordi- 
nary degree of courage, there was no individual 
among the Jews, when that nation had rejected 
the theocracy and demanded a king, more likely 
or more fit to be raised to that important station 
than he. Accordingly he was raised to it. In 
quest of his father's asses which had strayed 
from home, he was met by the prophet Samuel, 
who, in obedience to divine authority, set him 
apart to discharge the royal functions, b} r anoint- 
ing him with the consecrating oil. For a time 
he did well, administered the government wisely, 
in seasons of emergency acted with energy and 
promptitude, and adopted a course of policy fa- 
vorable to the growth and general prosperity of 
the Jewish people. He soon, however, forgot 
his true position as a servant of Jehovah. In- 
stead of regarding that august Being as the pri- 
mal source of power, and himself as under him 
in the capacity merely of a lieutenant; instead 



WITCH OF ENBOR. 251 

of looking up to the King of kings as the foun- 
tain of all authority, seeking of him conserva- 
tory laws, and then faithfully executing those 
laws, he seemed to suppose authority and power 
to be vested in himself, and acted independently 
of the Most High. This assumption of right to 
conduct the affairs of the realm according to his 
own private judgment and will j this thrusting 
Jehovah from his throne, and seating himself in 
his place, weakened his popularity with his sub- 
jects, and provoked the displeasure of the God 
of heaven, who, wearied at length with his stub- 
born arrogance, first threatened him. with the 
rejection of his family from the throne, and then 
visited him with that rejection : — the venerable 
prophet Samuel rending before him his mantle, 
thus significantly representing or mystically pre- 
dicting the rending of his kingdom. This vi- 
sitation of Jehovah Saul sorely felt. A deep 
melancholy at times came over him, which he 
could not shake off, — a melancholy bordering 
upon insanity. "An evil spirit troubled him" — ■ 
chastened him for his transgressions — which, 
instead of bringing him to repentance, only made 



252 SAUL AND THE 

him more desperate. The chief object of his 
hate and malice on these occasions — these parox- 
ysms of passion — was David, the youngest of the 
sons of Jesse, who was popular, heroic, and wise, 
and whom Saul suspected, from the possession 
of these qualities, was the person destined to be 
his successor. Twice did he attempt his assassi- 
nation with his own hand, — sent him on hazard- 
ous military expeditions, — placed him in dan- 
gerous straits where he could hardly hope for 
deliverance, and because Ahimelech the priest 
was David's well-wisher, slew in one day him 
and eighty -five other " persons that did wear a 
linen ephod." Indeed, so furious was he, when 
his strong passions were in the ascendant, when 
ambition, envy, and jealousy held empire in his 
soul, that he exhibited the moral infatuation of a 
man who abandons himself to iniquity, vainly 
thinking that the punishment due for one crime 
may be averted by the commission of another 
crime. In this way did he proceed, filling up 
the measure of his sins, and waxing worse and 
worse, till disaffection towards him by the people 
so prevailed, and distractions in the kingdom 



WITCH OF ENDOE, 253 

became so numerous and alarming, that lie was 
driven to that act of direct treason against Je- 
hovah, the God of Israel — consultation with the 
witch of Endor. What we would say on this 
singular incident in Saul's life will be a brief 
reply to the five following interrogatories. 

What object had Saul in view in desiring to 
see Samuel? 

He wished for his advice. Samuel had been 
always a good friend to Saul. He it was who 
had anointed him king ; and although many things 
which Saul did, Samuel could not and did not 
approve of, but solemnly and firmly protested 
against, he yet ceased not to take a lively inte- 
rest in his welfare. While Samuel was living, 
though Saul respected him as a faithful prophet 
of the Lord, he did not sufficiently value his 
friendship and counsel, but when the prophet 
died, he began to appreciate his .worth. He felt 
that he had lost a good friend ; the best friend he 
ever had ; a friend who, though he frowned upon 
his deeds of wickedness, wished for his true 
happiness ; a friend who was capable of giving 
sound advice, and stood ready to give i! — advice 
12 



254 SAUL AND THE 

which he had never followed, but to his advan- 
tage, nor neglected, but to his serious injury. 
Hence he wished to see Samuel again, to consult 
him. It was a time of perplexity and distress 
with Saul. God had departed from him. He 
had grieved the Holy Spirit, and now he was 
under the influence of an evil spirit. The Phi- 
listines, too, were gathering their forces together 
to assault Israel. It was a cloudy and dark 
day with the monarch. He wanted light, wanted 
some judicious adviser, and who so judicious as 
his old friend Samuel? But Samuel was dead. 
He must, nevertheless, have an interview with 
him, if possible. 

Our second interrogatory therefore is : — What 
measures did he resort to, in order that he might 
see him ? He sought a woman that had a fami- 
liar spirit, who lived at Endor. By " a woman 
that had a familiar spirit," (" a woman, a mistress 
of Ob," Heb.; "habens Pythonem," Yulg..) we 
are to understand a woman who pronounced or 
muttered spells ; who practised magic ; a sorcer- 
ess, or magician; a person, the popular idea 
concerning whom was, that she had powers be- 



WITCH OF ENDOK. 255 

yond the common powers of humanity, through 
aid of a familiar spirit appointed by Satan to 
attend on her and execute her wishes. There 
were persons among the Jews who pretended to 
have this power, both male and female, and have 
been such in all ages of the world ; persons who, 
by the use of spells, conjurations, or enchant- 
ments, or rappings, profess to hold direct com- 
munion with the invisible state, and have a po- 
tent influence there; as likewise to predict and 
accomplish things transcending the abilities of 
ordinary mortals. Scripture makes reference to 
the existence of such persons, and that in other 
passages than the one now under consideration, 
but does not so refer to them as to involve the 
reality of their pretensions. It tells us that there 
are persons making such pretensions, denounces 
them, and warns us against them ; but nowhere 
tells us that their pretensions are true, that they 
are what they profess to be, or can do what they 
profess to do. And we have no sufficient ground 
for belief that any mortal laying claim to such 
supernatural powers really possesses these powers. 
As "we know that an idol is nothing in the 



256 SAUL AND THE 

world, and that there is none other gods but 
One," so a person who has a familiar spirit, a 
witch, sorcerer, or necromancer, is nothing in the 
world, is vanity, an ignis-fatuus, a delusion. 
God has appointed no such inferior deities to act 
between mankind and himself; disclose His plans 
to whom "secret things belong," or call up the 
spirits of the dead to converse with the living; 
and it is foolish, wicked to believe that he has 
or can have any fellowship with such pretended 
agents of darkness. Saut, in his sober moments, 
had, by an express statute, banished all such 
mischievous persons from the land, but now, in 
his excitability, anxiety, and infatuation, he, like 
the gloomy tyrant of Scotland, Macbeth, inquires 
for one, and consults one at En dor. Disguising 
himself, he went thither by night, taking two 
men with him, and asked the sorceress to bring 
the individual from the dead whom he shall 
name; and then named Samuel: "Bring me up 
Samuel." 

Third interrogatory : Who was it, at the in- 
cantations of the woman, that appeared ? None 
other than the prophet Samuel himself. In this 



WITCH OF ENDOR. 257 

she was disappointed. She expected by some 
magical formula or rites to make Saul believe 
that she saw Samuel, and thus gain her end, ob- 
tain a gift, or magnify her skill ; but instead of 
this, Samuel, much to her surprise, actually ap- 
pears. Hence we read : "And when the woman 
saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and 
said to Saul, Why hast thou deceived me ? for 
thou art Saul." She was as much terrified at 
the phantom as Saul himself, for she had expect- 
ed no such thing. That personage actually rose 
to view and presented himself before her, though 
she had not the most distant idea that he would. 
She screamed therefore from fright, and, conscious 
that it was by no work or power of hers that 
Samuel appeared, at once inferred from the past 
connection of Saul and Samuel, that the person 
who had consulted her was Saul. " Why hast 
thou deceived me? for thou art Saul!" She 
meant to deceive Saul, but was deceived herself; 
overreached and confounded by her own arts. 
She had brought up not a vague figure merely, 
the vain form of somebody or something which 
the blinded, agitated king might mistake for the 



258 SAUL AND THE 

prophet, but the prophet himself. "And the 
king said, What is his form? And she said, An 
old man cometh up, and he is covered with a 
mantle : and Saul perceived that it was Samuel." 
Only the woman had seen the personated form 
before ; now he sees it. 

Fourth inquiry : What power caused Samuel 
thus to appear ? The power of God ! The act 
of God it was, unquestionably. All the parti- 
culars show this. He interposed his miraculous 
agency in the matter. The supposition that a 
woman by any magical arts can so evoke the 
spirits of the deceased, that they shall come at 
her call, or that Satan can do it, or, if not do 
this, can yet at his pleasure so personate an in- 
dividual of the dead, as to deceive the eyes and 
minds of the living, is not for a moment to be 
credited. God, for wise reasons, allowed the 
prophet Samuel in this instance to appear, al- 
though the sorceress had no power of her own 
to cause him to appear, and cried out with terror 
when he did appear. 

What objects were to be subserved by the 
apparition of Samuel? Several objects, and 
these of no trifling importance. 



WITCH OF ENDOK. 259 

One was, to pour contempt on the whole sys- 
tem of witchcraft. Numerous have been the 
augurs, soothsayers, necromancers, magicians, 
jugglers, and wizards, who have declared them- 
selves possessed of an occult science, by virtue of 
which they could foretell the coming destinies of 
mortals, and bring secrets from the invisible world. 
God, wishing to show that all such are base im- 
postors, could not take a better or more convinc- 
ing course, than to exhibit this witch, who claimed 
the power of evoking the person of Samuel, stand- 
ing affrighted before him when Samuel actually 
presented himself. She was alarmed when the 
very thing was done which she pretended to 
do! — thus showing that her pretensions were 
empty, and that her whole ami was to deceive. 
She had no such superhuman power as calling 
back a departed spirit from the unseen state im- 
plies; and as she stands terrified in the presence 
of that spirit, and bursting into wild shrieks, 
she shows how contemptible were her own pro- 
fessions, and the professions of all other persons 
of like character. 

Another object was, to warn Saul of his doom. 



260 S A U L A N 1) T II E 

For a long time Saul had been filling up the 
measure of his iniquities, until at length the cup 
of God's wrath had become full. He had de- 
throned God from his heart, he had tried to 
imbrue his hands in the blood of David, he had 
slaughtered priests of the Lord, and now, as his 
crowning act of rebellion against Jehovah, he 
had sought for and consulted a wizard, when as 
king he had uttered an edict against witchcraft, 
and was bound to see the law cutting off all that 
had familiar spirits from the land, faithfully exe- 
cuted. His evil works, therefore, had ripened to 
their full, and he was to be told this by the very 
prophet who had anointed him king, and whose 
judicious counsels he had despised. Hence 
Samuel, while he upbraided Saul for sending for 
him, at the same time admonished him of his 
crimes, told him that Jehovah was his enemy, 
and informed him of his approaching ruin. 
" The Lord," is his language, — " the Lord will 
deliver Israel and thee into the hands of the Phi- 
listines, and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons 
be with me;" i. e., separate from the body as I 
am, in eternity ! 



WITCH OF EN DOR. 261 

"And when shall sink 
In night to-morrow's day, thou and thy sons 
Shall be with me in death." 

Words of dread import, revealing to the eyes of 
the guilty monarch that bursting thunderbolt of 
divine vengeance, and that avenging lightning 
leaping from the throne of an angry Grod, which 
in a few hours would rend and destroy him ! No 
wonder that the king sunk under this terrible 
message, — that he "fell straightway all along on 
the earth, and that there was no strength in him!" 
for that dread Being whom he had defied, he well 
knew had all the fearful elements and agencies 
of death to punish his enemies ; and that in eter- 
nity — his soul required — these batteries of wrath 
would be unmasked against him ! 

Another object to be subserved by this mira- 
culous interposition of the Almighty was, to 
pointedly rebuke all impertinent pryers into 
futurity. He who made man, and knows what 
is in man, knows what a strong curiosity is in- 
herent in the mind and heart for what is occult, 
and how this innate disposition to pry into what 
is hidden would seek to be gratified. He knew 
12* 



262 SAUL AND THE 

that a class of persons denominated magicians, 
fortune-tellers, rappers, clairvoyants, &c, would 
appear, claiming to have prescience of futurity, 
and an intimacy with things invisible ; claiming 
to reveal secrets, disclose hidden treasures, inter- 
pret dreams, and bring tidings from the eternal 
world ; — he knew that such persons would ap- 
pear, practise their various illusory arts, and that 
some would be so weak and credulous as to be- 
lieve in them and trust them. Hence the record 
of this King of Israel sneaking by night to a 
sorry witch to learn his fortune ! What did he 
get by it ? Any good, any comfort ? Did he 
reap any advantage in taking her as his coun- 
sellor ? ISTo ; he was ensnared, entrapped, pun- 
ished : and a like fate awaits all who have to do 
with such sinful agents. They derive no benefits 
by their inventions, but are duped, defrauded, 
and fall into mischief; — find a home in lunatic 
asylums. All who practise these enchantments, 
of whatever name, are not to be run after, or 
consulted, but frowned upon and denounced. 
"Have no fellowship," says the apostle, "with 
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove 



WITCH OF ENDOR. 263 

them." These vain, illusory arts are just such 
works, for they are "works of darkness, and un- 
fruitful;" unproductive of any good to all parties 
concerned in them, save only the conjurer him- 
self or herself who gets his or her fee for laying 
the snare. Avoid these necromancers, turn from 
them and pass away. When, in protracted trials 
and perplexities, sense and reason point out no 
way of deliverance, and you are tempted by evil 
imaginings or corrupt advisers to resort for relief 
to sinful expedients, — remember Saul, and neither 
" lean to your own understandings," nor apply 
for direction to other than to the Father of Lights. 
" If any man lack wisdom, let him ask," — not of 
Satan, nor of Satan's emissaries, nor of any appa- 
rition counterfeiting human shape, but "ask of 
God, who giveth to all men liberally, and up- 
braideth" and deceiveth "not." He who for- 
sakes Infinite Wisdom, and contemns the coun- 
sels of the Most High, will be embarrassed, 
circumvented, stumble upon the dark mountains, 
and fall into hell. "The prudent man looketh 
well to his goings, by taking heed thereto accord? 
ing to God's word!" 



264: SAUL AND T II E 

Hence another object which the appearing of 
Samuel was designed to show was, that no crea- 
ture in the universe can be of any essential 
service to us when God has left us. Saul, having 
slighted God's altars, oracles, and prophet, having 
gone in opposition to his conscience, and resisted 
the strivings of the Holy Spirit, was judicially 
deserted of God. He acknowledged this to 
Samuel. "God," said he, "has departed from 
me, and answereth me no more, neither by pro- 
phets nor by dreams, and therefore I have called 
thee." Yes, Jehovah, abused, provoked, in- 
censed, had concluded to "let him alone,'' had 
forsaken him. And now he applies for help to 
Samuel, just as if a prophet of the Lord would 
help or could help a man whom God had aban- 
doned as past hope. No Christian, no prophet, 
no angel, no created being in God's wide universe 
can help such a man ! He has arrayed against 
him a power which no other power can master, — 
an almighty Agent, before whom the mountains 
fall down, and before whose wrath the rocks melt 
away! Jehovah has only to say, of a sinner, 
"he is joined to idols, let liim alone;" hisinclina- 



WITCH OF ENDOR. 265 

tion or disposition is so fixed against repentance, 
faith, and love, that I will no longer try by my 
trnth and grace to change it ; — he has only to 
say this to make that sinner's hardened depravity 
hopeless, all help offered him worthless, every 
channel of spiritual good to him choked up, and 
to seal him over to despair! He will be let 
alone, or only told, as Saul was, what will goad 
him as the fangs of fiery serpents ! 

True to the terrible declaration of Samuel, 
Saul died, casting himself upon his own sword ; 
and not improbably with some such sentiments 
as have been put into his mouth by a poet : 

" My kingdom from me rent, my children slain, 
My army lost, myself from hope cast out, — 
The seer hath spoken well. All is achieved ! 
David, thou art avenged!" 



XIX. 
DAVID. 

The name of David is one of the noblest on 
the catalogue of Israel's illustrious dead. His 
history naturally divides itself into three parts : 
the time he lived under Saul ; the period during 
which he reigned over Judah alone; and the 
period afterwards, when he reigned over all 
Israel. 

This, — the youngest of the sons of Jesse, — is 
first introduced to us as following the humble 
and quiet occupation of a shepherd. Kelative to 
the character of his parents little is known ; but 
from the frequent reference made in his writings 
to his mother, as "the handmaid of the Lord," it 
may be inferred that she was a pious woman ; 
and, if so, the early religious impressions of her 
son may be traced to her Christian counsels and 
prayers. Certain it is, that in the morning of 



DAVID. 267 

life he seems to have been the recipient of a di- 
vine influence, and to have found rare satisfaction 
in contemplating the being, creation, and ways 
of God. In the fields of Bethlehem, his flocks 
feeding around him, he mused, as the sun rejoiced 
in its course, upon this handy- work of the Great 
Supreme ; and when to day succeeded night, and 
the firmament "glowed with living sapphires," 
touched by an inspired impulse, he swept his harp 
to the praise of Him who made the moon to 
"walk in brightness," who marshalled the star*s, 
and whose glory these luminaries in their shining 
pathway proclaimed. 

Not long, however, was he allowed to remain 
amidst these peaceful scenes of pastoral life. 
Saul, the reigning monarch, having violated Je- 
hovah's commands, and the sceptre therefore 
having passed from him and his descendants, the 
prophet Samuel, in obedience to divine direction, 
visits Jesse and his sons, and singling out David, 
then about eighteen or twenty years of age, from 
the group, pours the anointing oil upon his 
head. Though his stature was not as command- 
ing as the others, he was "goodly to look to," 



268 DAVID. 

and had personal qualities "which his brethren 
had not — qualities which preeminently fitted him 
for the sphere in which he was destined to move. 
His first successful essay as the champion of 
his people was against Goliah of Gath, who, a 
gigantic pagan, six cubits and a span in height — 
a little short of ten feet — and with a frame pro- 
portionably majestic and powerful, stalked forth 
out of the camp of the Philistines, defiant of the 
armies of Israel, and striking terror into their 
ranks. With a brazen helmet upon his head, 
greaves of brass upon his legs, a coat of mail 
around his body, a target of brass between his 
shoulders, and a spear like a weaver's beam, the 
head of which weighed six hundred shekels of 
iron, he presented himself, thus accoutred, in the 
valley of Elah, and challenged any Israelite to 
single combat with him. For forty days, morn- 
ing and evening, did he throw down the gauntlet, 
and none had the courage to take it up. At 
length David, hearing his vaunts, and a spirit of 
patriotism and of faith stirring his soul, resolved 
to encounter him. Taking his shepherd's staff, 
his sling, and selecting five smooth stones from 



DAVID. 269 

the brook, he advanced into the field. The sight 
of so diminutive an adversary, and one so shabbi- 
ly equipped, only excited Goliah's contempt and 
indignation. Eyeing the stripling with astonish- 
ment and disdain, he roared out, "Am I a dog, 
that thou comest against me with staves V and he 
cursed David by his gods. The reply of David 
was that of a man of piety and true valor. 
Looking for victory, and victory from the Lord, 
he said to the insolent Philistine, " Thou comest 
to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with 
a shield ; but I come to thee in the name of the 
Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, 
whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord 
deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite 
thee, and take thine head from thee, and I will 
give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines 
this day unto the fowls of the air and the wild 
beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know 
that there is a God in Israel. And all this assem- 
bly shall know that the Lord saveth not with 
sword and spear ; for the battle is the Lord's, and 
he will give you into our hands." Having spoken 
thus, his declaration Avas verified; for, having 



270 DAVID- 

fitted one of the stones to liis sling, he hurled it 
with a velocity so great, and an aim so true, that, 
striking the giant in almost the only unfortiiied 
part of his body — the centre of his forehead — it 
forced itself through the bone to the brain, and 
felled him to the ground. As he dropped, the 
Israelites shouted and the Philistines fled ; and 
David, running to his once formidable but now 
prostrate foe, severed, with his own sword, his 
head from his body, and bore it off in triumph ! 
A victory so signal, so unprecedented, won for 
the youthful Hebrew, as well it might, high 
praise, which popularity of his, rousing the jeal- 
ousy and anger of Saul, caused him to be perse- 
cuted by that infuriated monarch, — "hunted" by 
him from place to place, " like a partridge upon 
the mountains," till the death of Saul on Gilboa 
delivered David from his murderous assaults, and 
constituted him what he had been before desig- 
nated and anointed to be — a King of Judah. 
During this first period of his history, while a 
shepherd, a chieftain, and a fugitive, nothing is 
chronicled relative to him which is much to his 
disparagement, while many things are recorded 



DAVID. 271 

to his credit. He had a cordial respect for the 
whole priestly order, whose character was raised, 
and whose influence with the masses was much 
increased by his devotional melodies ; " loved Jo- 
nathan," the son of the king, "as his own soul ;" 
endeared himself to all his associates by his 
personal self-denial and generosity; repaid the 
hatred and rage of Saul with deeds of kindness ; 
and maintained communion with God. 

David, now prince of Judah, is anointed anew 
and in public ; consults Jehovah by Urim and 
Thummim as to where he shall locate ; and es- 
tablishes himself in the ancient and honorable 
city of Hebron. His claim, however, to the 
throne was disputed by Ishbosheth, Saul's son, 
backed by Abner, an imperious and ambitious 
officer in his army ; and the consequence was a 
protracted civil war between them. But as the 
designs of God cannot be thwarted nor his pro- 
mises fail of fulfilment, " the house of David wax- 
ed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul 
waxed weaker and weaker," until the assassina- 
tion of Ishbosheth gave David supremacy over 
all Israel, and transferred the centre of govern- 



272 DAVID. 

ment and seat of royalty from Hebron to Jerusa- 
lem. David had no part in this murder of his 
rival, and though it put him in undisputed 
possession of the throne, frowned upon and 
punished the guilty authors of the tragedy. As, 
when the head of Caesar's rival, Pompey, was 
brought to that humane and illustrious general, 
he shed many tears, and slew those who had 
slain that distinguished man ; so, when those who 
had imbrued their hands in the blood of Ishbo- 
sheth bore to David the ghastly trophy of their 
crime, confidently expecting to be commended 
and rewarded for it, David spake indignantly of 
their treachery, denounced their sin, and ordered 
them to be executed. 

How different this from the conduct of Mark 
Antony, who ignominiously mutilated the corpse 
of Cicero ! hereby showing his consummate mean- 
ness, as the opposite behavior of David manifest- 
ed nobility of character. 

Behold next the son of Jesse at Jerusalem, in 
full possession of the sovereignty, and inhabiting 
a royal palace! The God under whose banner 
he had fought, and by whose strength he had 



DAVID. 273 

achieved victory upon victory, he devoutly 
acknowledges, .refers every thing that had occur- 
red to his particular providence, and proceeds to 
bring the Ark, the august symbol of the presence 
of Divinity, to the civil metropolis of the nation, 
and install it there with the highest honors. 

In this religious and imposing ceremony he 
acted a distinguished part. As it moved on, 
borne upon the shoulders of the sons of Kohath, 
he, divested of his royal raiment, girded with a 
linen ephod, and with harp in hand, headed the 
procession ; and when reproached for having, in 
the exuberance of his joy at the return of the 
sacred treasure to the city, exceeded the bounds 
of strict propriety, and invaded that dignity which 
became a king, he gave the objecter to under- 
stand, that if such manifestations of zeal on such 
occasions were censurable, he purposed to be still 
more censurable. The Ark having advanced 
near to its final abode, the court of the taberna- 
cle, he composed a song of praise in celebration 
of the event ; an exquisite production of hallow- 
ed genius, which, sung by the full choir of Israel 
with trump and cymbal, floated upward like a 



274 DAVID. 

cloud of incense to the skies. A part of this 
noble canticle was : 

" Lift up your heads, ye gates, 
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, 
That the King of glory may come in! 

"Who is this King of glory ? 
Jehovah, strong and mighty — 

Jehovah, mighty in battle. 
Lift up your heads, ye gates, 
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, 
That the King of glory may come in ! 

Who is this King of glory ? 
Jehovah of Hosts, He is this King of glory ! v 

And thus with David's harp and voice, and 
responding chorus, and sounding instruments, 
and shouting multitudes, were the doors and 
gates of Zion opened, and a free and glad en- 
trance made of the Ark of God to the place of 
its rest ! 

Had the life of David closed here, though it 
would have been less eventful, less interesting, 
and less instructive than it indeed was, his cha- 
racter would have been a more admirable one ; for 
at this stage of his public career, his prosperity, 
virtues, and fame reached their culminating point. 



DAVID. 275 

Henceforth the splendor of his worthy qualities 
pales, shadows conflict with the light ; what per- 
tains to him as a spiritual, thriving child of God 
is obscured, and what pertains to him as one of 
fallen Adam's descendants appears in bolder and 
melancholy relief; the infirmities of apostate 
humanity are more perceptible in him, and the 
trouble into which men are born more decidedly 
experienced by him. Dark was that stain upon 
his name, — the debauch of Bathsheba and the 
murder of Uriah ; and as he did not pretend to 
deny the existence of the blot, or attempt to wipe 
it out by disguising or palliating the foul affair, 
but frankly, publicly confessed it and mourned 
over it, we shall not attempt, as some have done, 
by any special pleading or apology, to make it 
other than what it was, — a flagrant crime — but 
rather point to his voluntary humiliation and 
gushing tears as proof of his " repentance unto 
life." That pertinent apologue of the prophet Na- 
than, commending the truth to the reason and sen- 
sibilities of the delinquent king, and that cutting 
application thereof — that home-thrust, a Thou 
art the man !" — addressed to his conscience, drop- 
ping like a bolt from heaven on the soul of the 



276 DAVID. 

royal culprit, brought him to his knees, and 
forced from his laboring bosom the cry, "I have 
sinned against the Lord!" And then the sen- 
tence which came from the lips of Nathan — the 
mouthpiece of Jehovah: — "Behold, I will raise 
up evil against thee out of thine own house," 
furnishes a key to God's subsequent providence 
relative to him, and the disasters of the remainder 
of his reign by which they are unlocked and re- 
vealed. Grievously did he sin, and grievously 
did he repent of it, and grievously did he 
suffer for it, notwithstanding his repentance ; 
for he lost ground in the esteem of Israel which 
he never recovered; the spirit of his crime 
was reproduced in his offspring, and "the sword 
departed not from his family." Often was his 
heart wrung by the wickedness of his children ; 
and the anguish thus induced was the more 
severe, because he could not but think that it was 
a judgment upon him for his own crime. 

" Keen was the dart, but keener far to feel 
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel!" 

Byron. 

By the death of the child of Bathsheba he was 



DAVID. 277 

chastised, and by the iniquities and miserable end 
of Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. That these 
trials were sanctified to him — that all his reverses 
were sanctified to him — we cannot doubt. Jeho 
vah forsook him not, but " as his day, so was his 
strength." Neither can we doubt that through 
his checkered history, his diversified experience, 
the people of God have been blessed; for the 
sentiments of his mind and exercises of his heart 
he has expressed in strains as brilliant and im- 
perishable, as if written in stars upon the page 
of the heavens ! 

Purposing to devote an article to Solomon, with 
whom the closing portion of the life of David is 
intimately connected, we shall not pursue his 
history further. 

And now, at the glance we have thus far given 
at this one of the most extraordinary of men, 
what shall we say ? All sorts of appreciation he 
has had; — how do we appreciate him? 

The principles of David were good ; the virtues 
of David were great ; the faults of David were 
many ; and none can properly question his prow- 
ess or genius. 
13 



278 DAVID. 

g^Think of the simple shepherd boy with his 
harp and staff, watching the lambs, and measur- 
ing his strength with their enemies, and we have 
a deep interest in him; think of military chief- 
tains, and he is at the head of them all; think 
of famous kings, and he immediately comes pro- 
minent up by the law of association ; think of 
divine worship, and you think of Jerusalem, the 
city of our God, which was the metropolis of his 
enrpire, and which he caused to be celebrated far 
and wide as the centre of religious influence; 
think of poets, and he, "the sweet singer of Isra- 
el," stands before you, his music entrancing }~our 
ears and his thoughts penetrating your souls. His 
best eulogy is his own productions — his best 
monument, the Psalms of David — a monument 
that will never crumble. 

With his sacred lyrics, the poetical productions 
of Homer, Pindar, Shakspeare and Milton, great 
as are their acknowledged merits, cannot be com- 
pared. Unlike these masters of song, the He- 
brew Minstrel is the poet of all creeds, nations, 
and climes. How wide the circle in which his 
devotional power is felt ! 



DAVID. 279 

In a bold and beautiful figure of Daniel Web- 
ster, the British possessions are spoken of as a 
dominion on which the sun never sets : " a power 
which has dotted over the surface of the whole 
globe with her possessions and military posts ; 
whose morning clrum-beat, following the sun, and 
keeping company with the hours, circles the earth 
daily with one continuous and unbroken strain 
of the martial airs of England." 

So we may say of the Psalms of David. The 
whole globe rings with these old temple chants. 

" The sound thereof has gone out through all the earth, 
And their music to the ends of the world." 

From morning till evening, and from evening 
till morning, at every hour, by childhood, youth, 
manhood, and old age, are they sung, from Sinai 
to the Alleghanies, and from China to Oregon. 
In cottage and palace, in church and cathedral, 
are they sounded out ; nor will they cease thus 
to be used as the vehicle of praise, the world's 
matin and vesper, till the millions upon millions 
who now employ them in their devotions, and 
are imbued with their spirit — yea, all God's elect 



280 DAVID. 

— shall be gathered to the general assembly of 
heaven, and mingle their hearts and their voices 
in the grand hallelujah chorus of the skies. 

Eeader, with soul attuned to that truly harmo- 
nious choir, now lift up thy voice in thanksgiv- 
ing, like the jubilee trumpet of old, and celebrate 
that name which is above every name. 

" Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name, 
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." 



XX. 
SOLOMON. 

This distinguished personage whose history 
we are now to consider, and who was the eleventh 
of the first class of David's sons, was born at 
Jerusalem, according to the most approved chro- 
nology, about ten hundred and thirty-three years 
before the advent of Christ. Like Joseph, Mo- 
ses, and other Scripture characters which have 
passed under our review, he is represented as 
having been a promising child, endowed with a 
natural mildness and loveliness of character, and 
to have been beloved of the Lord. No pains 
were spared in his education. Not only, in com- 
mon with the rest of the Jews who were of 
royal blood, was he taught from the Pentateuch, 
agreeably to that special command of Israel's 
great lawgiver, "The words which I command 
thee this day, thou shalt teach them diligently 

(281) 



282 SOLOMON. 

unto thy children," — a command, by the way, as 
binding upon parents now as it ever was, — not 
only was he instructed in these laws of Moses, — 
but likewise in all the sciences which were then 
taught. Possessing an aptitude for learning, an 
extraordinary capacity, and furnished with the 
best of instructions, and every advantage for 
prosecuting his studies which Jerusalem at that 
time afforded, he became by far the most learned 
man of the age, outstripping in all kinds of 
knowledge the wisest men of Egypt, Babylon, 
and Arabia. "God," we are told, "gave him 
wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and 
largeness of heart, even as the sand that is upon 
the sea-shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled 
the wisdom of all the children of the east coun- 
try, and all the wisdom of Egypt. He spake 
three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a 
thousand and five. And he spake of the trees, 
from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto 
the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and 
there came of all people to hear the wisdom of 
Solomon, from all the kings of the earth which 
had heard of his wisdom." 



SOLOMON. 283 

He was married early, at about eighteen years 
of age, to Naamah, an Ammonitess, whose influ- 
ence over him was pernicious; for while "a vir- 
tuous woman is a crown to her husband, and her 
price is far above rubies," a woman corrupt in 
sentiment and immoral in practice proves the 
occasion of serious evil to the man to whom she 
is conjugally allied. It was well understood at 
the royal court of David, that Solomon was to be 
his father's successor in the administration of the 
government; — indeed, Jehovah had designated 
him for this post, and the nation generally were 
satisfied with the appointment. Not so, how- 
ever, was his elder brother, Adonijah. He was 
a restless, ambitious man, grasped at the sove- 
reignty, and openly avowed himself a competitor 
with Solomon for the throne. There were not 
wanting those who declared in his favor, — even 
some whose patriotism and fidelity, until they 
took that stand, had been unquestioned. Joab 
was of his party, and so was Abiathar ; — the first, 
an accomplished and successful military officer, — 
the second, the high priest. In these circum- 
stances, Adonijah aspiring and active, able and 



SOLOMON. 

popular men coining over to his side, and not a 
few of the people, in their zeal for the usurper, 
already beginning to shout, "God save King 
Adonijah," — David felt the necessity of taking 
prompt measures to stay this tide which threat- 
ened the kingdom, and immediately caused Solo- 
mon to be anointed, and in the usual form and 
manner proclaimed prince of Israel and Judah. 
This being done ; Solomon having been duly in- 
augurated, in the presence and under the sanction 
of David, and the crown placed upon his head, 
a panic seized Adonijah and his friends, as the 
sound of the trumpets and other musical instru- 
ments, celebrating his accession to the throne, 
fell upon their ears, and they precipitately dis- 
persed, Adonijah fleeing, and for protection hiv- 
ing hold of the horns of the altar. Solomon, 
finding him there, was unwilling to treat him 
rigorously, and granted him a pardon on certain 
specified terms, with which Adonijah complied, 
glad to be let off so easily, when the charge of 
treason could be proved against him. Xot a 
long period elapsed after Solomon was thus in- 
ducted into the royal office, before he was sum- 



SOLOMON. 285 

moned to the bed of a dying father. He lost no 
time -in obeying the summons, and was deeply 
affected as he beheld disease progressing, pre- 
paring to attack the springs of life, and for ever 
remove from him a parent so kind, venerated, 
and beloved. The mind, however, of that parent, 
was in a state peculiarly serene and heavenly. 
Though the firm frame-work of the soul was 
breaking down, David had foreseen the approach- 
ing event, and prepared for it. Full of com- 
posure and hope, the pious monarch looked upon 
the face of his son, and gave him the following 
dying-charge: "I go the way of all the earth; 
be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a 
man, and keep the charge of the Lord thy God, 
to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his 
commandments, and his judgments, and his testi- 
monies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that 
thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and 
whithersoever thou turnest thyself: — that the 
Lord may continue the word which he spake 
concerning me, saying : If thy children take heed 
to their way, to walk before me in truth, with all 
their heart, and with all their soul, there shall not 
13* 



286 solomox. 

fail thee, said he, a man on the throne of Israel." 
David having given this direction to his son 
relative to his own deportment, and some other 
directions pertaining to other matters, "fell on 
sleep," and was welcomed, we cannot doubt, by 
that God whom he had loved and served, to the 
everlasting joys of his kingdom. Solomon as- 
sisted in the funeral ceremonies, wept over his 
grave, and, the customary days of mourning 
ended, was a second time anointed king. Sole 
monarch now of his father's wide domains, — a 
kingdom as extensive and flourishing as, up to 
that period in the annals of the world, the sun 
had ever shone upon, — Solomon bent all his 
energies to the preserving of this kingdom in its 
integrity and glory, and adopted a course of 
policy well adapted to this effect. Nor was he 
unsuccessful, for God was with him. While 
making a visit at Gibeon, to worship there, after 
he had offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon 
the brazen altar, and retired to rest, Jehovah ap- 
peared to him in a dream, and offered to grant 
him any request which he thought proper to 
make. Many were the desirable things which 



SOLOMON. 287 

the young king might have asked, and which 
others, situated like himself, would have asked ; 
but to his credit as a man of sense, to his credit 
as a man of intelligence, to his credit as a man 
realizing his responsibility to God for the right 
government of the empire over which, in divine 
providence, he had been placed, he asked, not 
for an increase of wealth, not for long life, not 
for the destruction of those who might plot 
against the throne, nor for the extension of his 
kingly dominions, but for a wise and understand- 
ing heart. " Give thy servant," was his modest, 
humble, pious petition, "give thy servant an 
understanding heart to judge thy people, that I 
may discern between good and bad; for who is 
able to judge this, thy so great people ?" Admi- 
.rable choice ! Who can but unhesitatingly ap- 
prove it, and commend him for it? And yet 
that same Divine Being who appeared to Solo- 
mon at Gibeon, now says, — "If any man lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be 
given him." Ye who approve the choice of 
Israel's youthful monarch, go yourselves and 



288 SOLOMON. 

seek for wisdom from the "Father of lights." 

" Come, let us put 
Up our requests to Him, whose will alone 
Limits his power of teaching 5 from whom none 
Returns unlearned, that hath once a will 
To be his scholar." Quakles. 

Solomon soon showed his wisdom in the decision 
he gave relative to the respective claims of two 
females to a certain child. Our readers must be 
familiar with the anecdote, the only one which is 
preserved concerning him, and there is no neces- 
sity therefore for quoting it. Suffice it to say, 
that if the verdict then and there given by Solo- 
mon evinces not an unmistakable knowledge 
of human nature, no verdict has evinced such 
knowledge, or can evince it ! We are not sur- 
prised when the divine record tells us, that, on 
learning of the decision, "all Israel feared the" 
king, for they saw the wisdom of God was in 
him to do judgment." 

Solomon next turned his attention to the noble 
enterprise of erecting a temple for Jehovah, at 
Jerusalem. His father David wished to con- 
struct it, but was not allowed by God to do 



S OL'OMON. 289 

" because he had been a man of blood." This 
honor, therefore, was reserved for Solomon. 
David, however, did not a little towards accom- 
plishing the great undertaking, for he left to 
Solomon immense sums of money which he had 
amassed during his wars and dedicated to this 
purpose ; and also a perfect model of the con- 
templated edifice, including all its furniture. 
Favored with these facilities, also with a national 
peace, and the friendship of neighboring princes, 
particularly that of Hiram, King of Tyre, Solo- 
mon commenced his work. As the exterior of 
the building was to be formed principally of 
stone, and the interior principally of cedar and 
fir, materials not easily obtained in Palestine, 
Solomon gladly availed himself of the large 
quarries and the suitable lumber found in the 
mountains of Lebanon, which were generously 
offered him by Hiram. To the written request 
of Solomon that he would do so, and appoint 
skilful men to hew out the cedars, promising on 
his part to furnish supplies of food for Hiram's 
family and laborers, Hiram returned the follow- 
ing courteous reply: — "I have considered the 



290 SOLOMON. 

things thou sentcst to me for, and I will do all 
thy desire concerning timber of cedar and timber 
of fir. My servants shall bring them down from 
Lebanon unto the sea, and I will convey them by 
sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt ap- 
point me, and will cause them to be discharged 
there : and thou shalt accomplish my desire in 
giving food for my household." The contract 
thus made was faithfully observed and fulfilled. 
Hiram spared as many master-mechanics as he 
could, out of his dense population, and Solomon 
furnished them with all necessary provisions. 
He also raised, by conscription, thirty thousand 
from among his own subjects, whom he de- 
spatched to the forests and quarries, ten thousand 
at a time, to labor there, besides those that were 
needed to prepare the ground at Jerusalem. 
Every stone and every timber was hewn and 
fitted to its place in the mountains, one hundivd 
miles from the city, before it was brought t<> the 
city, so that the sound of no axe, hammer, saw, 
chisel, or any other instrument, was heard <>n the 
building during the process of erection. In the 
words of TIeber : — 



SOLOMON. 291 

" No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung : 
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung." 

Thus the architectural pile went up ; seven and 
a half years rolled away ere it was completed, 
and when all was done to it that was to "be done, 
probably no edifice, ancient or modern, exceeded 
it in beauty, and certainly none in value. The 
curiously wrought timber and stones, the Corin- 
thian brass, and the silver and gold used in it 
and about it, were exceedingly costly. In the 
language of Scripture, it was "magniflcal ;" and 
when Solomon brought into it the sacred vessels 
of David his father, the ark containing the iden- 
tical pot which had manna, and Aaron's rod that 
budded, and the tables of the covenant, and 
placed them under the overshadowing cherubim, 
" the glory of the Lord filled the house of the 
Lord !" The superb structure was soon dedicated 
to the august Being for whom it was reared, with 
appropriate ceremonies ; Solomon kneeling upon 
a raised altar or scaffold, and with sincere and 
unaffected piety, and from a full heart, offering 
up a long and fervent prayer. Sacrifices and 
burnt-offerings, in great numbers, had been laid 



292 SOLOMON. 

in appointed places, and when the dedication 
prayer was concluded, fire burst forth from 
heaven and consumed them, while the singers 
and the vast crowd of spectators in the temple 
and its adjacent courts, exclaimed, "Praise the 
Lord ; for he is good, for his mercy endureth for 
ever !" 

This temple of Solomon, which was erected 
about ten hundred and five years before Christ, 
remained until it was destroyed by the Chalde- 
ans, under Nebuchadnezzar, five hundred and 
eighty -four years before Christ. Subsequent to 
the Babylonish captivity, the temple was rebuilt 
by Zerubbabel, though with far inferior magnifi- 
cence. This temple of Zerubbabel, having been 
polluted and injured in the Jewish wars, Herod 
the Great, in the eighteenth year of his reign, 
repaired and ornamented. This was the temple 
which was standing in the time of our Saviour. 
The site of it was Mount Moriah, and, agreeable 
to the prediction of Christ, it was entiely razed 
to the earth by the Romans, under Titus and 
Yespasian, and its site is now covered by the 
mosque of Omar, one of the most elegant and 



SOLOMON. 293 

costly specimens of Saracenic architecture any- 
where to be found. 

The Temple of Solomon having been finished, 
and Solomon's pecuniary resources not being 
nigh exhausted, he proceeded to erect other edi- 
fices ; a magnificent palace for himself, one for 
his Egyptian wife, and, as his heart had now be- 
gun to depart from the Lord, a number of build- 
ings to serve as places of idolatrous worship. 
He also fortified Jerusalem, put it in a more 
complete state of defence, provided military 
stores, and is supposed to have built Palmyra, 
or Tadmor in the desert, the ruins of which are 
still visible. He likewise constructed many ships, 
traded largely with the kings of Syria, Egypt, and 
Idumea, and opened a communication with Ophir, 
from whence he obtained great quantities of the 
precious metals, especially gold. About this time 
the Queen of Sheba, hearing of his greatness, for 
he had now become renowned — renowned for 
his wealth, the prosperity of his realm, and more 
particularly for his wisdom — paid him a visit, 
for the twofold purpose of seeing his glory, and 
obtaining answers to knotty questions in morals 



294 S L M o N . 

and religion. Struck with, the profusion of his 
riches, and the splendor of his court, and his 
consummate abilities, for he promptly and accu- 
rately replied to all her interrogatories, she ex- 
pressed herself as surprised and delighted. " It 
was a true report," said she, " that I heard in my 
own land of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed 
not the words until I came and mine eyes had 
seen it, and behold the half was not told me ; thy 
wisdom and thy prosperity exceed the fame that 
I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these 
thy servants, who stand continually before thee 
and hear thy wisdom." On her departure, she 
made Solomon rich presents, and he conferred 
many valuable gifts upon her. 

It is a trite saying, but no less true than trite, 
that "mankind cannot bear prosperity ;" certainly 
not such a high degree of it as that with which 
Solomon was favored. And he — this son of 1 >a- 
vid, this beloved of God, this oracle, this miracle 
of wisdom, alas! could not. His servants and 
maidens, his silver and gold, his men-singers 
and women-singers, and his sensual delights of all 
kinds, disjoined his heart from the Holy One, 



SOLO M ON .. 295 

produced extravagance and excess, and almost 
extinguished the flame of his piety. We read, 
in the eleventh chapter of the first book of 
Kings, that "when Solomon was old, his wives 
turned away his heart after other gods, and his 
heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as 
was the heart of David, his father ; for Solomon 
went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zido- 
nians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the 
Ammonites ; and the Lord was angry with Solo- 
mon, and said, I will surely rend the kingdom 
from thee, and will give it to thy servant." " His 
strong mind, like the strong body of Samson, 
lay besotted and enthralled in the lap of the 
'fair idolatresses' with whom he had filled his 
house from the nations around, and from whose 
blandishments he arose another man, shorn of 
his glory, shorn of his strength. He tolerated 
their corruptions and worships : this soon grew 
into active patronage and participation. Present- 
ly, upon the high hills overlooking the Temple of 
the Lord at Jerusalem, arose the shrines, the 
altars, and the images of Chemosh, of Moloch, of 
the Ashtaroth, and the other gods of his wives ; 



296 SOLOMON. 

and the heart of every holy man fainted within 
him to behold the son of David, himself so 
highly favored of God, sanctioning by bis pre- 
sence and active cooperation, the degrading wor- 
ship of the grim, the bloody, and abominable 
idols of Moab, of Ammon, and of Ziclon, in the 
very presence of that 'holy and beautiful house,' 
which in his younger days he had reared to the 
glory of the Lord."* Yes, the fact cannot be 
denied, that Solomon's old age was vicious. La- 
mentable indeed was his worldliness and volup- 
tuousness, and he fell ! 

" So fallen ! so lost ! the light withdrawn 

Which once he wore ! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 

For evermore ! 
Of all we loved and honored, naught 

Save power remains ! 
A fallen angel's pride of thought 

Still strong in chains. 
All else is gone : from those great eyes 

The soul is fled : 
When faith is lost, and honor dies, 

The man is dead. 

* KiHo's Daily Bible Illustrations, to which I am indebted 
in these papers for some suggestions and expressions. 



Solomon. 297 

Then pay the reverence of old age 

To his dead fame ; 
"Walk backward with averted gaze, 

And hide the shame." Whittier. 

But did he rise again, and was the extreme au- 
tumn of his life as it should be ? We think that 
his fall was not fatal to his salvation, but that he 
was brought again to repentance, was recovered, 
and sunk not under his sin; but of this, the 
proof is not as conclusive as could be desired. 
The current judgment of the Church, based upon 
the book of Ecclesiastes, is, that at "evening- 
time it was light" with him. 

Our readers will have glanced at the preceding 
history of Solomon in vain, if they learn not by 
it their moral weakness. If he, the consecrated 
child of King David; if he, the modest, stu- 
dious, and obedient youth ; if he, into whose 
mind knowledge was infused copiously, and 
direct from the divine fountain ; if he, who was 
advanced to the throne of Israel, and ruled for 
years in righteousness, to the happiness of his 
subjects, and the admiration and praise of sur- 
rounding nations ; if such a man was too impo- 



298 SOLOMON. 

tent to rule his own spirit, curb his own pas- 
sions, discipline and govern himself; who is not 
morally weak, and in danger of a spiritual fall ? 
Eloquently speaketh Bishop Hall on this 
point, when he says: "Who can but yearn and 
fear, to see the woeful wreck of so rich and 
goodly a vessel ? Solomon, wert not thou he 
whose younger years God honored with a mes- 
sage and style of love? to whom God twice 
appeared, and, in a gracious vision, renewed the 
covenant of his favor? whom he singled out 
from all the generation of men, to be the founder 
of that glorious temple, which was no less clearly 
the type of heaven, than thou wert of Christ, the 
Son of the living God? Wert not thou that 
dee]3 sea of wisdom, which God ordained to send 
forth rivers and fountains of all divine and hu- 
man knowledge to all ages ? wert not thou one 
of those select secretaries, whose hand it pleased 
the Almighty to employ in these pieces of the 
divine monuments of sacred Scriptures? Which 
of us dares ever hope to aspire unto thy graces? 
which of us can promise to secure ourselves from 
thy ruins? We fall, God, we fall to the low- 



SOLOMON. 299 

est hell, if thou prevent us not, if thou sustain 
us not ! ' Uphold thou me according to thy 
word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed 
of my hope. Order my steps in thy word, and 
let not any iniquity have dominion over me.' All 
our weakness is in ourselves, all our strength is 
in thee!" Who, who will presume upon his 
moral power with the frailty of a Solomon before 
his eyes ? " Let him who thinketh he standeth," 
who boasteth of his ability to stand, " take heed, ' 
lest he fall!" 

Further : the history of Solomon is a beacon 
against carnal indulgence. Like a signal erected 
near a whirlpool, it stands to warn the voyager 
on the sea of time, not to approach within the 
direful sweep of those passions which drown 
men in destruction and perdition! All our 
senses — the eye, the ear, the palate, the sense of 
smell, and of touch — are dangerous inlets to sin, 
and require a strong restraint to be laid upon 
them. Not to restrain them is to court sin, and 
to court sin is to court the tempter, and to court 
the tempter is to be shackled with a chain of 
adamant. To put oneself in contact with evil 



300 SOLOMON. 

company — to enter the house of the seducer — to 
indulge an unsanctified imagination — to visit 
theatres and other places of vain resort — to par- 
take of the* intoxicating cup — this is the way to 
kindle "those lusts which war against the soul;" 
and to kindle those is to kindle the fires of hell ! 
"He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh 
reap corruption." To exchange the straight and 
narrow road of purity, sobriety, and self-denial, 
for By-Path Meadow — the flowery plains of 
appetite and sin — is to put ourselves in the 
hands of the giant, and furnish bitter matter for 
repentance. 

To compare small things with great, there was 
a similarity between the Scottish poet, Robert 
Burns, and Solomon. Both had brilliant genius, 
and yet neither could subjugate his passions. 
Burns acknowledged this in the epitaph for him- 
self which his own hand penned. Affecting, 
touchingly pathetic, are the lines : 

" The poor inhabitant below 
Was quick to learn, and wise to know, 
And keenly felt the friendly glow, 
And softer flame, 



SOLOMON. 301 

But thoughtless follies laid him low, 
And stained his name. 

Reader, attend — whether thy soul 
Soars fancy's nights beyond the pole, 
Or darkling grubs this earthly hole 

In low pursuit ; 
Know, prudent, cautious self-control 
Is wisdom's root. 

Thousands, millions, have been ruined for 
want of a "prudent, cautious self-control." "He 
that keepeth his spirit is greater than he that 
taketh a city." 

And, too, we shall have considered the history 
of Solomon to little purpose, if we are not led to 
a more diligent study of the books he wrote. 

The book of Ecclesiastes and the book of 
Proverbs, we can hardly read too frequently, 
or study too intently. They are a mine of 
spiritual wealth ; which, the more it is worked, 
the richer is the product. " He spake three thou- 
sand proverbs," from which he selected and re- 
corded the most instructive and pertinent ; and 
of these it may in truth be said, what the Koman 
orator, Cicero, said of the writings of Thucydides : 
14 



302 SOLOMON. 

that "they are so full of matter that they com- 
prise as many sentences as words." They are 
not the words of the wisest man merely, for, 
while the pen was that of the King of Israel, the 
sentiments are the wisdom of God. Solomon not 
only had a capacious and well-disciplined intel- 
lect; not only had a plenitude of knowledge, 
and a varied experience, and "breathes out in 
his writings his whole soul in the earnestness of 
benevolent desire;" but had supernatural aid, 
and "spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost." 
Hence, in his books, you have the "mind of the 
Spirit," and there is garnered in them what the 
erring, wayward children of men need. They 
are a treasury for all, and a guide for all ; and, 
as Dr. Johnson commences an interesting and 
instructive tale with the euphonious paragraph : 
"Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers 
of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phan- 
toms of hope, who expect that age will perform 
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies 
of the present day will be supplied by the mor- 
row, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of 
Abyssinia;" so we say: Ye who would grow in 



SOLOMON. 303 

wisdom ; ye who would store your minds with 
useful wisdom ; ye who would become acquaint- 
ed with human nature; ye who would " guide 
your affairs with discretion ;" ye who would es- 
cape the snares which have been spread for you, 
and the pitfalls which are dug for you ; ye who 
would conform your souls to the known will of 
God, and be "thoroughly furnished unto all 
good works;" industriously and prayerfully 
study u the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, 
King of Israel !" " Day and night read them, 
read them night and day."* 

* " Vos exemplaria Graca 
Nocturna versate manu, — versate diurna." 

Horace. 



XXI. 
DANIEL. 

" Sleep on," said one of distinction in the 
literary world, as lie stood over the allies of 
Bunyan, in Bunhill-fields ; " sleep on, thou 
prince of dreamers." He does sleep on with 
others in that place of graves. 

" The lark's shrill clarion or the echoing horn 
No more arouse them from their lowly bed." 

But he was not the " prince of dreamers." 
This title rather belongs to him whose history 
we are about to sketch. A princely dreamer 
Daniel was. Nor magnificent dreamer only, but 
an incorruptible patriot, an illustrious prime mi- 
nister, a decided eminent saint, and one of the 
most gifted and eloquent of the Hebrew pro- 
phets. 

He was born in Jerusalem, and descended 
from one of the highest families in Judah. 

(804) 



DANIEL. 305 

While he was jet a lad, Jerusalem was suc- 
cessfully invaded by Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon, who rifled the palace of its treasures, 
the temple of its sacred vessels, and carried away 
into captivity many children and young men, 
who were of royal extraction. Among those 
thus borne into captivity was Daniel. He was 
carried to Babylon, and being a comely and 
promising youth, was taken into the service of 
the royal court of Babylon, where he received 
the Chaldean name of Belteshazzar. In this 
new station he was furnished with a liberal 
education at the public expense, was instructed 
in history, philosophy, and mathematics, the lan- 
guage and laws of the realm, and in whatever 
else might qualify him for future influence and 
usefulness. He had an early opportunity of 
showing what manner of spirit he was of, — how 
that, though in Babylon, he was still an Israel- 
ite, and attached to the observances of the Mo- 
saic law ; for, though favored with a seat at the 
royal table, yet, as he was thus exposed to the 
temptation of partaking of unclean food, and 
participating in the idolatrous ceremonies at- 



306 DANIEL. 

tendant on heathen banquets, he asked permis- 
sion not to indulge his appetite with these dain- 
ties, lest he should defile himself therewith ; and, 
having obtained such permission, temperately 
confined himself to a strictly vegetable diet. 
The divine blessing resting upon him for this 
conscientious self-denial, and aiding him in his 
studies, he grew rapidly in physical and intel- 
lectual vigor, and far outstripped others in the 
wisdom and learning of the age. His good 
scholarship and high attainments attracted the 
attention of the' king, and won for him his 
favor. This favor was increased by his inter- 
preting a dream of prince Nebuchadnezzar to his 
satisfaction, who therefore promoted him to office, 
and made him governor ol the province of Baby- 
lon, and head inspector of the sacerdotal caste. 
He afterwards interpreted another dream of the 
king's ; to the effect, that his dominion was to 
be taken from him for a definite period because 
of his haughtiness, and afterwards, because of 
his humility, was to come again into his pos- 
session ; in the interpretation of which dream 
he manifested a tender interest in the monarch's 



DANIEL. 307 

welfare, and gave liim such counsel as befitted 
his trying situation. For some years after the 
death of Nebuchadnezzar we lose sight of Daniel. 
By those who immediately succeeded that mon- 
arch, he appears not to have been appreciated. 
He was removed from office, and his opinion in 
matters pertaining to the government and good 
of the realm was not asked. He comes, however, 
again into notice, under the reign of king Bel- 
shazzar, to whom he interpreted the handwriting 
upon the wall ; which interpretation, though not 
such as the king desired, yet commending itself 
to his conscience as right, caused the king to re- 
ward him by titles and ensigns of honor. The 
kingdom of Babylon was at this epoch transfer- 
red into other hands. Darius, the Mede, took it 
in partnership with, and by consent of, Cyrus, 
who had conquered it. In remodelling the go- 
vernment, Darius, now invested with the crown, 
constituted Daniel his prime minister of state. 
By occupying this highest point of honor, he 
became an object of envy and jealousy. The 
other presidents and officers of the realm could 
not bear that a foreigner and a Jew should be 



308 D AN I E L . 

promoted above them; and the ill-will which 
they bore him shortly showing itself, illustrated 
the nature and power of his faith. 

Wishing to degrade and ruin him, they were 
much exercised to know how it could be done. 
So unexceptionable and faultless was his charac- 
ter as a civilian and as a man, that they could 
bring no charges against him that could be sus- 
tained. They, therefore, attacked him for his 
religious sentiments and conduct. Their lan- 
guage was: "We shall not find any occasion 
against this Daniel, except we find it against him 
concerning the law of his God/' Would that 
this were true of every professor of religion! 
that if they were found fault with, it could not 
be for any thing really wrong, but only because 
they were too conscientious and devoted to their 
Master's interests ! How creditable to Daniel 
that his enemies were forced to take exceptions 
to him on this point, and this only ! Having, 
however, come to the conclusion, in caucus, 
attack him here, they proceeded to lay their 
plans accordingly. It is the misfortune of those 
possessed of despotic power to have some 



DANIEL. 309 

wicked counsellors, who take advantage of weak 
points in their character to accomplish their 
own selfish and base purposes. King Darius 
had such members in his court. He appears 
to have been a man of full ordinary vanity, and 
of this foible they took advantage on the present 
occasion. They flattered him, and by way of 
ministering to his self-esteem and exaltation, 
proposed that he should make a decree that he 
alone should be prayed to, thus putting him in 
the place of God most high ! He was induced 
to do this, — to publish an edict, that "whoso- 
ever should ask a petition of any God or man, 
save of the king, for thirty days, should be 
cast into the den of lions." Thanks to the Su- 
preme Euler of all that we live not under a 
monarchy but under a constitutional govern- 
ment ! — that no Oriental despot rules us, issues 
decrees, and enforces them by the power of the 
throne ! What did Daniel in this perilous con- 
juncture ? We know what he might have done, 
and what multitudes similarly circumstanced 
would have done. He might have had inward 
trepidation and dismay ; he might have fled the 
14* 



310 DANIEL. 

kingdom ; he might have abjured God; he might 
have restrained prayer for a time ; he might have 
sought some secret place and prayed there ; he 
might have prayed, as many say they do, not 
orally, but silently, — prayed in heart, and omit- 
ted the form. But Daniel did none of these 
things. He was not alarmed, was not driven 
from his duty, attempted no compromise between 
conscience and safety. When he knew that the 
decree had gone forth, and the writing signed 
dooming him to the lion's den, if he offered a 
petition to other than to Darius, not a syllable of 
apology, of entreaty, or of remonstrance escaped 
his lips. Instead of going to the king of Baby- 
lon, and telling him why such a decree was ex- 
torted from him, — instead of revealing the plot 
which envy and jealousy had laid for his de- 
struction, and protesting against it, — instead of 
pleading exemption from the bearing of the de- 
cree, because of his own distinguished position 
as an officer of the government, and his past 
public services, — instead of taking this course, 
he, with great firmness and dignity of spirit, 
with that moral intrepidity and strength of faith 



DANIEL. 311 

so becoming a Christian, "went to his chamber, 
and his window being open towards Jerusalem — 
the place of his fathers' sepulchres — kneeled 
upon his knees three times a day, and prayed 
and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore- 
time I" 

He, of course, was watched ; his enemies were 
on the alert. " Then these men assembled, and 
found Daniel praying and making supplication 
before his God." "We can see them hurrying 
tumultuously thither to the dwelling of the saint, 
happy in the success of their plans. They have 
caught the Jew in his chamber, and praying. 
What a discovery ! W^hat a disclosure of crime ! 
He is actually praying, and that when he is told 
he must not ; and praying, too, not to the king 
of Babylon, but to the God of Heaven ! 

His enemies lost no time in complaining of 
him to the king, and their complaint is express- 
ed in language calculated to increase the king's 
indignation against him as much as possible. 
"Hast thou not," said they, "signed a decree, 
that any man who shall ask a petition of any 
God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O 



312 DANIEL. 

king, shall be cast into the den of lions?" The 
king answered and said, " The thing is true, ac- 
cording to the law of the Medes and Persians, 
which altereth not." Then answered they and 
said before the king, that "Daniel, which is of 
the children of the captivity of Judah," — that 
"foreigner, that despicable captive of that despi- 
cable people, the Jews, — regardeth not thee, O 
king, nor the decree which thou hast signed, 
but maketh his petition three times a day ; not 
only has done it within the thirty days, but does 
it every day, and three times a day!" When 
the king heard these words, he was sore dis- 
pleased with himself. He began to see that he 
had been too hasty, and had been ensnared; 
began to see that " he who is flattered has a net 
spread for him ;" began to see that it was not 
out of compliment to himself, not as a tribute to 
his own honor and majesty, but malice against 
Daniel, which had prompted the officers of the 
realm to have such a decree made, and that he 
was wronging Daniel, and was in danger <»!' los- 
ing a valuable public servant. His consci 
too, told him that Daniel was right, and he could 



DAK I EL. 313 

not but admire that firmness, that moral heroism, 
which he had displayed. He tried, therefore, to 
deliver him, and "labored till the going down of 
the sun to deliver him." But his efforts were 
vain. He could not. An inflexible decree, a 
solemnly ratified law, had bound him, and the 
law must take its course. " Then these men 
assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, 
Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and 
Persians is, that no decree or statute that the 
king establisheth can be changed. Then the 
king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and 
cast him into the den of lions." These lions 
were kept in a hungry, ferocious state, for the 
purpose of devouring such criminals as were 
convicted of capital crimes ; and such ones were 
thrown to them. While, however, the king exe- 
cuted the law which consigned Daniel to their 
den, and laid upon the mouth of the den that 
signet which confirmed the law, he encouraged 
him with the remark, that the God to whom he 
had approved himself faithful would not desert 
him in this hour of trial. Thy God," was his 
language, "thy God, whom thou servest con- 



314 DANIEL. 

tinually, lie will deliver thee." And now the 
barbarous deed is done ! Daniel is in the den of 
lions, and a heavy stone is at the den's mouth ; 
his accusers are triumphing, and his enemies are 
revenged. But King Darius sympathizes not 
with -them. His sympathies are with Daniel. 
His heart is with the innocent, abused Jew, 
who is in the den. Full of grief and fear, he 
retires to his palace. He eats no supper. He 
retires to bed, but he gets no sleep. Instru- 
ments of music he will not have brought before 
him, for "what are songs to a heavy heart '/** 
Thus he passes the night. Very early in the 
morning he arose, and no sooner is he up than 
we find him hurrying to the den of lions, ne 
might have sent a servant, but he goes himself. 
He would testify his affection for Daniel by 
going in person ; besides, he cannot wait for the 
answer a servant might bring him. He hastens, 
therefore, himself to the den. And with what 
conflicting emotions of hope and fear docs h..- 
go ! — hope, that Daniel may be yet alive, and 
yet fearful that he may have fallen a prey to 
the savage beasts ! Thus, full of concern and 



DANIEL. 315 

trouble, he approaches the den. "And when 
he came to the den, he cried with a lame table 
voice unto Daniel. And the king spake and 
said unto Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living 
God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, 
able to deliver thee from the lions ? Then said 
Daniel unto the king, king, live for ever. My 
God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' 
mouths, that they have not hurt me ; forasmuch 
as before him innocency was found in me ; and 
also before thee, king, have I done no hurt." 
What respectful, yet bold and triumphant lan- 
guage ! What respect and deference to the king, 
and at the same time what confidence in God ! 
He reproaches not Darius for his impious decree ; 
while, conscious of his own integrity, he vindi- 
cates himself, and magnifies the power of Jeho- 
vah! The king appreciated it all, and imme- 
diately ordered his discharge from confinement. 
"Then was the king exceeding glad for him, 
and commanded that they should take Daniel 
up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out 
of the den, and no manner of hurt was found 
upon him, because he believed in his God." 



316 DANIEL. 

Nor was he thus miraculously delivered only, 
but again promoted to the highest seats of honor 
under Darius and Cyrus, where, although neces- 
sarily much occupied with the affairs of state, he 
did not forget his people, but did all that was in 
his power to further their interests, and had the 
satisfaction of beholding the consummation of 
his desires and endeavors in their being again 
restored to the land of Palestine. 

In the third year of Cyrus, his prophetic cha- 
racter shone brilliantly forth in a series of visions, 
in which were minutely represented the condi- 
tion of his nation to the time of Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, as also of occurrences till the very close 
of the world's history. " The great grandeur of 
his prophecy," as Gilflllan remarks, " arises from 
his frequent glimpses of the coming One. Over 
all the wondrous emblems and colossal confusions 
of his visions, there is seen slowly, yet triumph- 
antly rising, one head and form, — the form of a 
man, the head of a prince. It is the Messiah 
painting himself upon the sky of the future. 
This vision at once interpenetrates and overtops 
all the rest. Gathering from former prophets 



DANIEL. 317 

the rajs of glory which they saw, Daniel forms 
them into one kingly shape ; this shape he brings 
before the Ancient of Days ; to him assigns the 
task of defending the holy people ; at his feet lays 
the keys of universal empire, and leaves him 
judging the quick and the dead. To Daniel it 
was permitted to bring forth the first full birth of 
that great thought, which has ever since been the 
life of the church and the hope of the world." 

How long he lived after this signal manifesta- 
tion of prophetic gifts, or where he departed this 
life, we cannot say. There is a tradition in the 
East, a tradition very ancient, and entitled to 
more respect than traditions in general, that he 
died and was buried at Shushan.* Josephus, 
though he gives no particulars relative to his 
latter days or of his decease, says regarding him : 
" He was so happy as to have strange revela- 
tions made to him, and these as to one of the 
greatest of the prophets, insomuch that while he 

* It is stated that, among other recent discoveries in Per- 
sia, the ancient palace in Shnshan has been brought to light, 
as also the tomb of Daniel, and sculpture representing his 
position in the lions' den. 



318 DANIEL. 

was alive lie had the esteem and applause both 
of kings and of the multitude ; and now that he 
is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never 
fail." — Ant., b. x., ch. xL Very true ; for the 
name of Daniel stands one of the three highest 
in the Jewish calendar — 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die. — Halleck. 



XXII. 

HAMAN, MORDECAI, AND 
ESTHER. 

Hamaist, an Amalekite, was prime minister to 
the reigning king of Persia, Ahasuerus. Mor- 
decai was one of the Jewish nation, against which 
nation, Haman, as was the case with all the Ama- 
lekites, cherished a bitter enmity. We propose 
to sketch the history of these two men, connect- 
ing with it that of Esther, a Jewess, who was the 
niece of Mordecai. 

To occupy a post of honor, does not necessarily 
prove that the person occupying it possesses real 
merit. This remark will hold true as applied to 
all governments, and is emphatically true as 
respects an absolute monarchy, where office is 
hereditary, or where those are advanced to office 
who promise to execute the will, or so manage 
as to please the taste and caprices of the supreme 
sovereign. The fact, therefore, that Haman was 

(319) 



320 H A M AN , MORDECAI, 

high in station in an Asiatic court, was exalted 
to a position second in dignity only to that of 
the king himself, does not show that he was 
deserving of respect, either because of his intel- 
lectual or moral qualities. He appears, on the 
contrary, to have been far from meritorious ; and, 
promoted to a post of honor and influence, to 
have availed himself of it to further his own 
sinister purposes. 

It is customary for oriental potentates to re- 
ceive the homage of their subjects, which homage 
is rendered by bowing low before them. Such 
homage was rendered to Hainan. AVhile, how- 
ever, the multitude rendered it, obsequiously 
prostrating themselves as he passed, Mordecai, 
who knew him to be an enemy to Jehovah, and 
to the Jewish religion and people, and who beheld 
him insolent with honor which he never merited, 
refused to do so. This refusal was not unnoticed 
by Haman, and the disrespect hereby shown him 
awakened his revenge. Full of wrath, he de- 
termined to empty the vials of that wrath upon 
the head of Mordecai ; and not upon him only, 
for " he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai 



AND ESTHER. 321 

alone," but upon all the Jews throughout the 
Persian dominions. In order that this cruel pur- 
pose might be carried into effect, he misrepre- 
sented the Jews to King Ahasuerus, as a people 
scattered abroad in the provinces of the kingdom, 
with laws of their own, conflicting with the laws 
of the realm, a disloyal people, and a people which 
it was not safe for the king to harbor. By these 
calumnies, he so far succeeded in prejudicing the 
mind of his sovereign against the Jews, as to 
obtain from him a decree, that by a certain day 
every Jew found within the bounds of the em- 
pire should be put to the sword. Having grati- 
fied his foul and violent passions by getting such 
a barbarous edict issued, an edict which, in its 
execution would assassinate Mordecai, and exter- 
minate the whole race to which he belonged, 
he congratulated himself, and confident of the 
success of his plans, "went forth that day joyful 
and with a glad heart." As he went forth, he 
again saw Mordecai in the king's gate, and again 
did the keen eye of Hainan behold the erect 
form of the Jew among the bending courtiers.* 
* To obviate the objection that it wasMordecaPs pride and 



322 HAMAN, MORDECAI, 

This poisoned his joy, that Mordecai would " not 
stand up or move for him," but he comforted 
himself with the thought of the bloody decree 
which he had procured, and that general mas- 
sacre of the Israelites which was near at hand. 

Leaving now Haman and Mordecai for a few 
moments, Ave turn to Esther. 

We have said that she was a Jewess, and the 
niece of Mordecai. She was an orphan, and adopt- 
ed or brought up by him. She was a female of 
remarkable beauty, which beauty had so won for 
her the favor of King Ahasuerus, that having 
divorced his queen Yashti, for not submitting to 
his commands, he had substituted her in her 
place. It does not seem that at the time this change 
occurred, Ahasuerus was aware that she was of 
JeAvish origin. The fact, hoAveA^er, that she was, 

insolence which caused him to refuse the customary tokens of 
respect to his official superior, the Targum and Aben Ezra 
say, that Haman had erected a statue for himself, and had 
images painted on his clothes ; and hence for Mordecai to 
have bowed and shown him reverence, would have been mis- 
taken by some for religious worship— would, in fact, have 
been idolatry. Dr. Gill excuses his conduct on this ground. 
AVilliam Penn, we know, from conscientious scruples, would 
not uncover to King Charles. 



AND ESTHER. 323 

numbered her among the ones doomed by the 
royal edict to death, for that edict contemplated 
by one sanguinary blow the extinction of the en- 
tire Hebrew nation. It was soon made known to 
her, that for some cause her uncle Mordecai was 
in deep distress, and covered with sackcloth and 
ashes. Interested in his welfare, she sought to 
ascertain the occasion of his grief. To this end 
she sent Hatach, one of the eunuchs of the harem, 
to him, and through that faithful servant learned 
of the bloody decree, and hence of the dire cala- 
mity which was impending over the head of her 
uncle, and the head of her kindred, as well as 
over her own head. This calamity she imme- 
diately addressed all her energies to avert, and 
she proved equal to the task. Though the Per- 
sian law made it no less than death for any man 
or woman to go into the inner court of the king, 
without a summons from the king calling them 
thither, she nevertheless determined to do so, 
and risk the consequences. She knew that there 
was a Messiah to come, and come "of the seed 
of Israel, of the stock of Abraham," and this em- 
boldened her to peril her life in saving the na- 



324 HAMAK, MOKDECAI, 

tion through whom he was to come, for she felt 
that in making the attempt she would have the 
protection and aid 'of that Almighty Being whose 
promises were sure, and whose mercies to his 
people were covenanted. "Go, therefore," said 
she to Mordecai, " and convene all the Jews that 
are present in Shushan, and let them fast for me, 
and pray three days and three nights ; I will 
fast and pray likewise, and then will I venture 
into the king's presence, though it be in viola- 
tion of law ; and if I perish, I perish." Having 
thus engaged the help of fasting and prayer in 
the success of her enterprise, she courageously, - 
and in faith, walked into the inner court of the 
king, and put herself in his forbidden presence. 
" The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, 
and he turneth it whithersoever he will." Ahasu- 
erus received her graciously. Her lovely coun- 
tenance, tinged with a pensiveness which a de- 
jection of spirits had caused, made it seem more 
interesting and charming to him than ever bef< >re, 
and " he held out to her the golden sceptre that 
was in his hand." The top of this sceptre she 
touched, and to the courteous words of the king, 



AND ESTHEE. 325 

" What wilt thou, Queen Esther ? and what is thy 
request ? it shall be given thee, even to the half 
of my kingdom," she meekly replied, "If it seem 
good unto the king, let the king and Hainan 
come this day unto the banquet which I have 
prepared for him." They accordingly came, — 
came two days in succession. It so happened, 
that between these days of banquet, Haman, at 
the instigation of his wife Zeresh, had erected a 
gallows fifty cubits high, for the purpose of 
hanging Mordecai upon it ; and it so happened, 
likewise, that on one of the nights, King Ahasu- 
erus, being unable to sleep, had commanded the 
records of his reign to be read to him, in which 
records it appeared that a foul conspiracy against 
him had, through the address and influence of 
Mordecai, been nipped in the bud.* The king 
asked those servants who ministered unto him 
whether any recompense had been paid for this 

* Jewish authors state that the conspirators in this case 
were Tarsians, and, speaking the Tarsian language, supposed 
the matter was an entire secret, hut that Mordecai understood 
the language and exposed them. The latter Targum says 
that a direct revelation was made unto him by the Holy 
Ghost. 

15 



326 HAHAK, MORDECAI, 

distinguished service in behalf of himself and his 
empire; and on being told that there had not 
been, put the question, " Who is in the court ?" 
They replied, " Haman." He Avas there for the 
purpose of obtaining a commission from the 
king to hang Mordecai upon the gallows which 
he had built. The king said, " Let him come 
in." So Haman came in. Then said the king unto 
Haman, " What shall be done unto the man whom 
the king delighteth to honor?" Haman, blindly 
supposing that that man could be none other 
than himself, returned for answer, that he ought 
to have the highest and most public honors con- 
ceivable. Upon which he was told, " Make haste 
and do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, who sittetli 
at the king's gate." This order he was com- 
pelled to obey, however unwelcome the task. 
Crestfallen and disappointed, he was forced to 
deck the hated Jew with robes of royalty, and, 
conducting him in magnificent cavalcade through 
the city, proclaim him the king's favorite. This 
being done, when on the second day he came to 
the banquet, Esther fastened upon him the 
charge of having plotted the destruction of her- 



AND ESTHER. 827 

self and people. Hainan was greatly agitated, as 
individuals usually are when charged with crime 
of which they are guilty, and in his confusion 
and trepidation so behaved as to rouse against 
him the anger of the king. And the king at the 
same time being informed that a gallows had 
been prepared by Hainan, for the ignominious 
death of Mordecai, to whom he was so deeply 
indebted for rescuing his life from conspirators, 
was so incensed that he immediately commanded 
Haman himself to be hung upon it ; and thus, 
on the identical gallows reared for the shedding 
of the innocent blood of Mordecai, Haman expi- 
ated his own guilt ! 

Haman now gone, and Mordecai advanced to 
the station which Haman had filled, he did all that 
was in his power to neutralize or counteract the 
barbarous decree which Haman had obtained. This 
decree could not be revoked, for no decree which 
had once gone forth from the Persian throne, could 
be. The law of the Medes and Persians, it is well 
understood, was unchangeable. This was a fun- 
damental article in their Magna Charta. After, 
however, what had been done was kn^wn, after 



328 II A M A X , M O R DECAI, 

a Jew had held the post of prime minister, and 
permission was given to the Jewish people to 
stand on the defensive, though the decree was 
not rescinded, but little blood comparatively was 
spilled. In commemoration of this signal de- 
liverance, the Israelites instituted a feast called 
the feast of Purim, which is the last festival in 
their ecclesiastical year, and is observed by them 
to this day. At this festival the Book of Esther, 
written on a separate roll of parchment, is read 
from beginning to end ; and when, in reading, 
Mordecai's name occurs, the whole congregation 
exclaim, " Blessed be Mordecai I" and when the 
word Haman is uttered, they cry, "May his name 
perish !" " The acts of Mordecai's power and of 
his might, and the declaration of his greatness," 
the sacred writer tells us, " are written in the 
chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia. He 
was next unto King Ahasuerus, was great among 
the Jews, was accepted among his brethren, 
sought the wealth of his people, and spake peace 
to all their seed !" 

It now remains to gather out from the preced- 
ing history those lessons which it desigi 



AND ESTHER. 329 

teach, Among others which, might be instanced, 
we learn by how small a matter earthly springs 
of happiness may be poisoned. 

Had any one seen Hainan in that exalted po- 
sition, high in the favor of the king, in the midst 
of a thousand submissive courtiers, invested with 
honor and office, and surrounded with the means 
of sensual gratification, he would have said, 
" There is a happy man. He surely has every 
thing to make him happy, and he is happy." 
But he was far from happy, as he himself ad- 
mitted. And how trifling an affair made liirn 
wretched! On returning home, after having 
received an invitation to the royal banquet 
which Esther the queen had prepared, he gather- 
ed his wife, children, and friends together, "told 
them of the glory of his riches, how he had been 
advanced above the princes and servants of the 
king, how no man but himself had been invited 
to the banquet with the king, &c. ;" told them 
this, and then added, " Yet all this availeth me 
nothing, so long as I see Mordeeai the Jew sitting . 
at the king's gate." He had money, he had 
friends, he had offVe, lie had- worshippers who 
15* 



330 HAMAN, MOEDEOAI, 

prostrated themselves before him, and fed his 
pride with servile homage ; he had all these, yet 
so thoroughly wretched was be, that he conf 
to his family that these sources of pleasure, this 
opulence and this power, availed him nothing — 
were as if they were not. And why? What 
dreadful evil besets him, which is an offset to all 
these, and banishes comfort from his soul ? One 
person only in the empire will not stoop to him ! 
That is all. A man by the name of Mordccai 
refuses to do him reverence. And this simple 
incident preys with such violence on the heart of 
Haman, that it embitters every joy and genders 
internal misery! Why did he let this trouble 
him ? What if Mordecai did sit at the gate, and 
not rise up as he came in? Others did. Why 
look at the Jew? Wiry care whether his joints 
were supple or not? There was the ring of state 
on his own finger, evidence of the king's friend- 
ship and the seal of authority ; there was his 
splendid equipage ; there was the banquet ; there 
was the palace. What then though Mordecai 
did decline to do obeisance, could not his obei- 
sance be dispensed with ? Was it worth while 



AND SSTHEK. 331 

to dwell upon it in thought, to be disturbed by 
it, to be shaken by a storm of passion, to be 
made wretched by it ? Ah, what trifling causes 
annoy us, and trouble our repose ! How slight 
a matter wounds our sensibilities and distresses 
us ! How often a single element in the full and 
otherwise delicious cup of prosperity makes it 
distasteful and corroding ! What, my readers, 
we observe in Haman, we may often find passing 
within ourselves. Things of little consequence 
are too often allowed to disturb us, vex us, and 
destroy our relish for other comforts. "A Mor- 
decai appears, or seems to appear, sitting at the 
gate." Some evil, unworthy of notice, or which 
should scarcely be felt ; some slight affront, or 
trifling privation, is pondered, and brooded over 
and aggravated, till the soul is ruffled, the tem- 
per soured, and all that we enjoy "availeth us 
nothing!" 

Observe again, upon how many and precious 
interests pride and revenge will trample for their 
gratification. Because of the disrespect shown 
Hainan by Mordecai, wrath, pride, and desire of 
revenge, rise into fury and determine his destruc- 



332 H A M A X j MORDECAI, 

tion. Nor his destruction only — this is not 
enough to give satisfaction. Others, too, must 
die. Because a Jew has shown him som< s des] rite, 
the whole Jewish nation must suffer — must 1 m • 
put to the sword ! "What had the innocent, de- 
fenceless women and children of Israel, scattered 
over the Persian dominions — thousands upon 
thousands of them who had never seen either 
Hainan or Mordeeai — what had they done to be 
thus butchered? Were they to blame for what 
Mordeeai did, that their throats must bleed for 
his offence ? Yet against all these does Hainan "s 
fury fly, and upon their unsheltered heads would 
he pour out his vengeance! Oh, how cruel is 
pride and revenge ! On the tender interests of 
what numbers will it trample to meet the object 
of its hate ! It will enwrap thousands of inno- 
cents within the trespass of one offender, and 
compel them all to bite the dust. Nero, on one 
occasion, expressed the wish that all Christians 
had but a single neck, that he might smite it off 
at a blow! Hainan had the same wish relative 
to the Jews. By one stroke, by one fell swoop, 
he would extinguish the generation and the name ! 



AND ESTHEB. 333 

Behold again the power of faith and prayer. 
When it was known that the merciless decree 
had gone forth, when the day was fixed on 
which Jews of all ages and sexes throughout the 
hundred and seven and twenty provinces of King 
Ahasuerus were to be sacrificed to the wrath of 
Haman, Mordecai not only puts on sackcloth and 
ashes, and these people devoted by the decree to 
death not only weep and lament and bemoan 
their hard lot, but Mordecai, Esther, and all the 
Jews at Shushan, pray. They look away from 
human help to divine help. They betake them- 
selves to Jehovah, and lay his resources under 
tribute. Believing that there was a God — the 
God of Israel ; believing that he was a prayer- 
hearing God ; believing that he was clothed with 
omnipotence, and could do all his pleasure, could 
"make the wrath of man to praise him, and re- 
strain the remainder thereof ;"' believing that he 
had said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; 
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me;" 
believing that he had delivered their race on for- 
mer occasions when they cried for help against 
their oppressors ; believing this, they assembled 



33-i HAMAN, M li D E C A I , 

together, and poured out their hearts before him 
in prayer ! We can easily conceive how they 
would pray in such circumstances, with what 
fervor, importunity, and faith ; and they did 
pray ; their souls were in the work, and there 
were " groanings which could not be uttered!" 
Nor was it in vain. " Their cries entered into the 
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth," and they received 
an answer, and a favorable answer. Which leads 
us to observe again — behold the wonder-working 
providence of the Almighty ! 

These praying ones could not tell how their 
prayers would be answered — in what way God 
would interpose for their relief. They only be- 
lieved that he would interpose in some way, and 
that effectually. And how did he interpose? 
Singularly indeed ! " On that night," we are 
told, (on the night Mordecai, Esther, and the 
Jews were fasting and making supplication,) "on 
that night Ahasuerus, the king, could not sleep." 

A secret influence from the Hearer of prayer, 
that Being whose is the gift of sleep as well as 
all other gifts, a secret influence from this One 
came down upon the king, which, made him rest- 



AND ESTHER. 335 

less and wakeful. "He could not sleep;" and 
(oh, strange expedient to produce sleep, or while 
away the leaden hours of the night!) he called 
for the book of records, or the journals of his 
reign, to be read to him. They were brought, 
and (strangely again) the reader opened to that 
place in the register where was the record of the 
discovery by Mordecai of a plot against the 
king's life, which prevented its execution ! Had 
the king slept, or had he called, as Oriental mo- 
narchs generally did, for music and songs where- 
with to compose himself to rest, or called for any 
other book, in which to find entertainment for 
his thoughts, than the book of records; or, 
when the books of records was brought, had 
any other page been turned to than that iden- 
tical one in which this kind patriotic act of 
Mordecai was chronicled ; either of these things 
occurring — either of which might have occur- 
red, and some one of which most certainly would 
have occurred, but for the particular providence 
of Him who superintendeth the minutest con- 
cerns of mankind, and without whose notice not 
a sparrow falls — either of these things occurring, 
" Mordecai had been that morning advanced fifty 



336 HAMAK, MORDECAI, 

cubits higher than the earth, ere the king could 
have remembered to whom lie was indebted!" 
But no — there was a God, an omniscient, omni- 
present, omnipotent God, and prayer had been 
offered him, and he had heard it, and by his in- 
finite wisdom and power this marvellous concur- 
rence of circumstances was drawn together to 
accomplish his designs of love towards Esther, 
Mordecai, and his people ! 

" Deep in unfathomable mines 
Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up his bright designs, 
And works his sovereign will." 

COWPER. 

" Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or 
who hath been his counsellor?" 

The history we have been considering illus- 
trates also the truth of that proverb, " Pride goeth 
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before 
a fall." 

How humiliating it must have been for the 
high-spirited and proud-hearted Ham an — who 
had gone to bed pleased with the thoughts of 
seeing Mordecai hanged the next day, and who 



AND ESTHER. 337 

had the next morning risen early and gone to 
the king's court to get an order to hang him — 
how humiliating it must have been for him to 
deck this his enemy in royal apparel, place him 
on the king's steed, set the crown royal upon his 
head, and escort him through the city, calling 
public attention to him, and proclaiming as he 
went, " This is the man whom the king delighteth 
to honor!" But this he had to do, and what was 
worse, it was a prescription of his own, honor 
which he had liberally carved out for "the man 
whom the king delighteth to honor," because he 
ignorantly and vainly supposed that man was 
himself, and in carving thus bountifully, he was 
carving for himself! That Jew whom, because 
he would not bow to Hainan, Hainan intensely 
hated, and thirsted for his blood; before that 
man Hainan was forced himself to bow, be a 
witness of his pomp, herald his gioiy through 
the city of Shushan, and hear the streets of that 
city ring with his praises ! We cannot conceive 
of any thing more galling than this must have 
been to the heart of Hainan. We wonder not 
on being told that, the pageant over, "he hasted 
16 



838 HA MAN, MORDECAI, 

to his house, mourning, his head covered." And 
what did he hear there from his wife Zeresh, she 
who had been a partner in his villany, and had 
advised to the erection of the gallows? Not 
any thing comforting, but what was calculated to 
depress and distress him still more. "If," said 
she and her other friends to Hainan, whose soul 
was charged with mortification and grief, "if 
Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before 
whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not 
prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before 
him." Such was the stinging language to which 
he was forced to listen from the lips of his wife 
and family friends, which was followed by the 
still more fearful words of Queen Esther, as she 
looked him in the face and confronted him in 
the presence of the king with his crime ; "the 
adversary and enemy is this wicked Hainan !" 

Oh, what a fall was here to pride ! what humi- 
liation to a haughty spirit, when he who the day 
before had the homage of all knees but one, was 
now so covered with shame that none in the 
court of Persia were "poor enough to do him 
reverence !" 



AND ESTHER. 839 

Finally, behold the sure triumph of justice. 
Though justice be slow, it is sure ; though tardily 
executed, it is yet executed ; though resisted and 
hindered, it will yet triumph. Why should men 
deny that there is a God on the throne of the 
universe who has established a moral govern- 
ment, under which crime will sooner or later be 
detected and punished ? "Why deny this, when 
evidences of the fact have appeared in all ages 
of the world, and are daily appearing before our 
eyes? It is not safe to sin, for " evil pursues the 
sinner." It is not safe to project any schemes of 
iniquity, for unforeseen obstacles will arise to pre- 
vent their being carried out, or, if carried out, 
executioners of justice will follow after and reach 
the criminal. Haman plotted against Mordecai 
and the Jews ; plotted, as he thought, cunningly, 
and for a time things seemed to indicate that his 
barbarous wishes would be gratified. But Je- 
hovah ordered otherwise. The web of destruc- 
tion which he had Avoven for others was thrown 
around himself, and into the pit which he had 
digged for others he himself was precipitated. 
il Even-handed justice commended the poisoned 



340 H A ,M A N , MORDECAI, 

chalice to his own lips," and be was forced t<» 

drink the noxious draught ! 

The Psalmist tells us, that "the wicked plot 
teth against the just, and gnasheth on him with 
his teeth, but the Lord shall laugh at him, for he 
seeth that his day is coming." 

Hainan's day had come. Convicted, his tongue 
faltered, his lips trembled, and his heart failed 
him. " Hang him," said the exasperated king. 
"hang him. upon his own gallows:" and unsuc- 
cored, unpitied, was be arrested, and suspended 
on the very gibbet which he had erected for 
Mordecai ! 

u So let all thine enemies perish, ( > Lord: but 
let them that fear thee be as the sun. when lie 
goeth forth in his strength." 

Here, then, we take our leave of the reader, 
having completed the several portraits which we 
had designed to sketch. 

Lord Bacon has remarked, that "the Bible is 
like the land of Canaan, which flowed with milk 
and honey ; or like the Garden of Eden, where 
the Lord God caused to grow out of the ground 
every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good 



AND ESTHER. 341 

for food." And we have found it thus in con- 
templating these Scripture characters. 

We feel how imperfect has been our impress 
of them. We are aware that it is but a faint 
pencilled outline. But we have taken pleasure in 
meditating upon these rich and instructive ex- 
amples furnished by the inspired records — that 

" Broad land of wealth unknown 
Where hidden glory lies :" 

have in no instance sacrificed truth to the popu- 
lar taste, and hoping that what we have written 
will be found adapted for private devotional read- 
ing, and especially for the family circle, commit 
it to the blessing of the great Head of the 
Church. 






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